Religious groups urged to put money into 1D1F projects

The CEO of the Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM), Mr. Lawrence Agyesam, has called on religious organisations to put money into government’s project to establish factories.

“I invite the Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) to use some of their monies in supporting the One-District-One-Factory,” he said during a forum on Ghana Beyond Aid.

The theme for the programme was: ‘COVID-19 and our march towards Ghana Beyond Aid: Turning adversity into opportunity”.

The Ghana Export-Import Bank has supported 106 factories under government’s industrialisation plan dubbed, One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) project.

The GEXIM CEO said the factories are dotted across all regions and include four shea butter processing centres and 15 pharmaceutical companies.

He said the Ghana EXIM Bank has financed the production of local materials for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products to support COVID-19 prevention and management.

Among the beneficiaries are also poultry businesses.

“As we speak, in the Ghana EXIM Bank, we have done almost 106 One-District-One-Factory across board and I challenge anybody to say that it is not known,” he said.

According to him, GEXIM has invested in more than 100, 000 acres of high-quality cassava suckers. The investment, he said will “help us to have enough so that we don’t import ethanol,” an important component of hand sanitizers.

He called the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda achievable and One-District-One-Factory, a game-changer towards achieving that goal.

He charged government institutions to have faith in local contractors and praised the Ministry of Health for awarding contracts for PPE production to local firms.

In April 2020, GEXIM said it had disbursed GHC800 million to support 84 1D1F projects and this is expected to have shot up after increasing the number.

The GEXIM bank aims at supporting local firms to export goods as Ghana tries to industrialise and cut down on importation.