The President Akufo-Addo led administration on December 14, 2019, released a list of exactly 58 Ghanaian factories supposedly completed and functional under the One-District-One-Factory flagship programme.
The list which revealed quite extensive details of the factories including the regions they are located in, the number of people employed over the period of their operation, and others have been a subject of scrutiny.
A latest investigation carried out by a journalist, Nana Jantuah regarding the validity of the 58 completed and functional factories proved otherwise. With respect to the 52nd factory on the list; Unijay Garments ltd. in the Asokwa district of the Ashanti region, it was said to have provided 1700 jobs – of which 200 are direct and 1500 are indirect.
A tour around the site where the company is 'supposedly' located revealed a bare land space with a huge billboard bearing inscriptions about the proposed factory.
Not only that, a ‘probably-empty’ shipping container was also seen on the land, as well as a number of barely completed structures and wide land space covered with bush.
In the video, the journalist is heard saying, “this is the land space where one the factories in the list is supposed to be located. But look, it’s only this huge billboard with 1D1F inscriptions and architectural projection of the factory and these (pointing at the barely completed structures).”
“So you don’t just sit there as government communicators and propagate lies. Come and see for yourself, there is no factory here unless I’m at the wrong place which I doubt. Nana Addo if you don’t take care your officials will disgrace you. This Unijay Garment ltd which is supposed to have employed 1700 people.”
Another man clarifying the issue explained that “the Unijay Garment ltd already exits as a company, on its own, I even know where it is located at Ahensan but under the 1D1F initiative, they were supposed to have moved here long ago. So I was shocked when I saw it in government’s list that it had been completed. So I decided to come here and check if they had been able to build it over the short period.”
“I came here again on Saturday and it was the same empty place, so to me I thought it was a mistake for it to have appeared on the list, if it is a mistake, government must correct it but if it’s deliberate then we’re letting people know it’s all a lie,” he added.
Meanwhile, out of the 58 companies on the list released, 22 of them can be found in the Greater Accra Region, 11 in the Eastern Region and 12 in the Ashanti Region.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo