He also proposed a drastic one-year ban on all forms of small-scale and community mining, whether legal or illegal, as part of a bold strategy to combat the menace.

The move is aimed at restoring Ghana’s river bodies and forest reserves.

“Impose a complete ban for one year on small-scale, community mining, whether legal or illegal, within one year we can clean all our river bodies…The introduction of new legislation and regulations will impose a complete ban on any form of mining in river bodies and forest reserves, With associated sanction regimes including life imprisonment for the violation of these new laws,” he stated.

Speaking at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) encounter in Accra on October 1, he explained that tougher penalties are crucial to deterring offenders.

“If it’s just a 10-year sentence, the money they make from galamsey will make that punishment insufficient. They’ll serve the time, come back, and continue,” he stated.

Mr Kyerematen urged the nation to take a firm stance on illegal mining, stating, “We have to be serious about how we deal with galamsey.”

“Through the intervention of 1D1F, 139,331 direct and indirect jobs have so far been created by the 76 companies that are already operational,” he told the Appointments Committee of Parliament during his vetting on Friday, February 26, 2021.

He indicated that, about 285,915 direct and indirect jobs are projected from the projects that are under construction.

He also indicated that 68 of the 232 1D1F projects are existing companies.

The 1D1F is a private sector-led initiative introduced by President Nana Akufo-Addo to create the necessary conducive environment for businesses to access funding from financial institutions and other support services from government agencies so as to establish factories and production units in the various districts of the country.

“Currently we have 232 1D1F projects at various stages of implementation. Contrary to comments that 1D1F is just an attempt to brush up on existing companies, if you look at the statistics, only 64 of the 232 companies are existing, 168 of them are new companies,” he said.

The Trade and Industry Minister-designate added that the 1D1F initiative is one of the most revolutionary programmes since Ghana’s independence.

“It is appropriate for me to indicate that the One District, One Factory initiative, which has been led by the Ministry of Trade and Industry is one of the most revolutionary interventions to have been introduced in our country since independence. It goes to the core of bringing industry and development to the doorsteps of ordinary people and that is why we pursued this whole programme with aggression,” Mr Kyerematen stated.

It seeks to change Ghana’s economic structure from import dependent by adding value to raw materials for export.

Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen, told Parliament Wednesday that the project will be led by private sector players, indicating that they would be able to provide the timelines for completion.

Mr. Kyerematen said 700 proposals have been received so far for the construction of various factories. 256 of these proposals will be considered for financial support, he revealed further.

He said government’s investments in each of the factories will not exceed 30% of the total cost of the factory.

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Trades and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen has assured the business community that the government would continue to provide the right conditions and to facilitate access to finance and market under the one district one factory (1D1F) programme.

He said although the programme was designed to be private sector led, the government would identify both local and foreign financial institutions to give financial support to entrepreneurs under the initiative.

It would also facilitate negotiations with participating financial institutions for medium and long term financial support and to invest more than 30 percent equity in district enterprises where required.

Mr Kyerematen was answering questions in Parliament on the IDIF.

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The Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Mr Richard Mawuli Quashigah and Mr Daniel Kwesi Ashiamah, MP for Buem had asked the questions.

Mr Quashigah wanted to know whether there was an implementation plan for the 1D1F policy initiative, and if so whether the Ministry would furnish the House with a copy.

Mr Ashiamah asked the Minister whether there was a standardised structural design for the 1D1F and who would be responsible for it, and the responsibility of the Government of Ghana in the 1D1F project.

The Minister said his ministry had developed a Concept Paper and an Implementation Framework to guide the implementation.

The implementation involved some key tasks – identification of the natural resource endowment of each district, profiling of potential projects based on the natural resource endowment, and the selection of one or more projects to be designated as District Enterprise Project.

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Added to these were the identification of Business Promoters for each project and the development of a Business Plan or Investment Memorandum for the selected project, the Incorporation of each District Enterprise Project as a private limited liability company under a public private partnership arrangement (PPP), or as a wholly privately owned company.

“All PPP projects under the 1D1F are to be managed by the private sector with representation of government, only at the level of the Board,” the Minister said.

He announced that a Technical Support Group had been established at the Ministry for technical backstopping for the implementation of the projects.

The Minister said the cost of each project would range between US$ One million and US$10 million.

Equity contributions of both the government and the private sector would be used to leverage additional debt financing from local or foreign banks.

Government would also support farmer based organisations in the form of extension services and access to credit.

Mr Kyerematen told the House that there were going to be a series of investor meetings for potential investors where investment memoranda prepared for the various District Enterprise Projects would be presented.

He promised to make a copy of the Concept Paper and Implementation Plan available to the House.

Touching on the issue of structural designs, he said the structural design for each factory was determined by the Business Promoters, taking into account the nature of the technology required as well as the environmental conditions within the vicinity of the factory.

To ensure that the structural design of the factories did not pose a threat to the survival of communities in and around the factory, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Ghana Standards Authority, Foods and Drugs Authority and District Planning Officers had been included in the District Implementation Support Teams.

The agreement signed on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, in Accra enables the establishment start of projects for the processing of industrial starch, vegetable oil, garments and alcohol in line with governments One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative.

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The projects are expected to create over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.

At the same signing ceremony, some local banks who are participating in the 1D1F program also signed on- lending facility arrangements with CNBM in support of the initiative.

At least four local banks have been selected to serve as intermediaries between the Chinese entity and local businessmen and women to execute the projects.

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As part of the arrangements, the CNBM will supply equipment and machinery to the business promoters, while the local financial institutions, comprising the National Investment Bank (NIB), the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the Barclays Bank, will facilitate the disbursement of the facility to investors.

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