Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Ernest Aryeetey has said the New Patriotic party’s promise of one-district-one-factory policy is not attainable.
Speaking at Graphic/Stanbic Business Breakfast Meeting in Accra today February 14, 2017, Â prof. Ernest Aryeetey said:
“…I always say that since you are not going to create jobs in the short term in your cities, you’ve got to focus on rural districts. And how do you do it? It’s not going to be easy. I was very happy that in the government’s campaign to be elected, it did talk about one-district-one-factory [policy]. I don’t believe you can do that. I don’t believe you can do one-district-one-factory nor do I believe there is a need for it.â€
The former Vice Chancellor added that "there is a need to have, for each district of Ghana, an industrial development plan that will have a focus on transformation of the district economy and a focus on job creation, so, if that job creation, as a result of the plan, is coming through one factory, then so be itâ€.
In his view, “…It is the structure of the district economy that will determine what should be done there: maybe that structure is going to lead to more emphasis on agriculture, maybe that structure is going to lead on construction, maybe that structure is going to lead on services, depending on the skills set available. So, we need to have, for every district, a plan in terms of what is going to change and how that change is going to lead to more jobs.
“And I would say in that plan, the emphasis should be on modernising agriculture because that’s what you have, that’s the potential that you have most, the idea here is to help fill that middle that is missing.â€