The campaign team of the 2024 Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, has claimed that the One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration has created 169,870 jobs, both directly and indirectly.
This is according to Dennis Miracles Aboagye, Director of Communications for the Bawumia Campaign Team, during a campaign event on June 30, 2024, where he claimed that this initiative has significantly reduced Ghana‘s unemployment rate.
“This government’s 1D1F initiative, since its commencement, has created 25,318 direct jobs. The indirect jobs created amount to 144,552, which combine to give us 169,870, between 2017 and 2024,” local media quoted Aboagye.
He compared the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s achievements to those of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), criticising the NDC for poor performance in industrialisation.
“Between 2009 and 2016, the NDC could only manage to put up five factories. These factories could only create 558 direct and indirect jobs. This is a complete failure on the part of the then NDC government,” he said, pointing out that the NDC’s five factories only provided 220 direct jobs and 338 indirect jobs.
The Nana Addo/Bawumia administration, between 2017 and 2024, has completed 169 factories under the 1D1F scheme. 152 more factories are under construction and will soon come on stream. In total, 321 factories were started, and the jobs created amounted to 169,870, Aboagye claimed.
He urged Ghanaians to support the NPP to maintain its industrialisation efforts.
Meanwhile, despite these claims by the campaign director, Ghana’s unemployment rate is expected to hit 4 per cent by the end of 2024, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ expectations.