Alan Cash Deepens NPP’s Confusion

On 1 district 1 factory policy

Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng the shadow Minister responsible for industrialization under a potential New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has sparked questions about the viability of the NPP’s promise of one factory in every district in Ghana.

When hosted on CITI Fm earlier this week, Alan Kyeremanteng was unable to answer critical questions about how the NPP would be able to sustain the 1 District 1 Factory policy promised by its flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo.

He struggled to explain how a Nana Akufo Addo led government will build 216 factories if elected as President. In his explanations, he referred to some factories built by the previous NPP administration; however, these factories have all collapsed.

“The Ayensu Starch factory commissioned in 2004 operated for two years. It was shut down because of working capital. I won’t agree it collapsed. Government has done well to revamp it but it should give us the credit. Nothing has been added to the old facility we built so we deserve praise,” he struggled to explain.

Alan Kyeremanteng admitted government at the time had difficulty getting raw materials to feed the factory and had to fold up. He also tried to explain why government was unable to sustain the other PSI on Garment and other initiatives.

He eventually blamed the collapse of the factories on negative propaganda by opponents at that time.

Mr. Kyeremanteng’s cluelessness is similar to that exhibited recently by the NPP Director of Communications when asked about the sustainability of the 1 District 1 Factory promise of Akufo Addo. Nana Akomea claimed the NPP had yet to do a feasibility study on the programme. Alan Kyeremanteng also repeated the same line, saying the main opposition party has no concrete plan yet, but expects to fall on working document after feasibility studies across the country.

These excuses have raised questions about the genuineness of the promise made by NPP’s twice-defeated flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo.

Alan Kyeremanteng explained further that an Akufo Addo government would create the enabling environment for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to build the the proposed factories. Again, this is a total contradiction of the definite promise made by Akufo Addo that his potential administration would establish those factories.

He explained how an Akufo Addo led government will liaise with communities and the private sector to establish private limited liability companies, PLCs to harness resources, in what critics have dismissed as an exhibition of the fact that the NPP party has no blue print of the proposal and that it was just an empty political campaign promise.
“Each district will have the responsibility of identifying their own projects together with the private sector. The PLC will then be set up and implementation will follow. So we cannot talk about government alone selecting projects. It’s about the district, and if the private sector is interested, they will come in” he noted.

He further argued, over 100 business plans were put together during the Kufuor regime and these are accessible.