The CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation, Nana Osei Bonsu has urged government to reserve a greater percentage of incentive packages under the One District, One Factory initiative for local companies so as to ensure their sustainability.
Mr. Osei Bonsu stated that such a move will sustain the project and help create jobs for Ghanaians.
“We have got to monitor how it is implemented if this is supposed to influence investments in the programme then I will want to anchor it on the domestic ownership equity of those factories. It’s the right thing to do to boost the local private individuals,” he said.
He added that reserving majority of the projects in the hands of locals will also help in improving revenue from tax collection.
“The tax will come in the reverse angle so to me this is one of the best things that parliament has done over the period for the private sector and much more for the domestic investors”
Nana Osei Bonsu observed that government ought to be clear in all its policy implementations, concerning the initiative in order to attract more investors.
“What government brings to the table, whether thirty percent equity interest, whether granting of land or other incentives should be publicized. We think that there must be an articulated format for disseminating information because we think there are too many people talking about too many things”.
Background
There are currently45 companies under the One District One Factory projects operational, out of 181 projects already on the drawing board.
Aside from 22 of the 181 projects, which are under construction, the remaining projects are set to commence implementation before the end of 2019.
The projects are set to commence by the end of 2019.
They include small scale processing facilities, common user processing facilities financed from sources ranging from local private finance initiatives (PFIs), African Development Bank (AfDB) and CNB facility.
Of the 181 factories on the drawing board, 52 of them are existing ones while the remaining 129 have been categorized as new
The incentive package which was approved by parliament waives taxes on machinery and equipment for operators under the policy and includes corporate tax exemptions for five years.
