President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned 80,000 per unit capacity garment manufacturing factory under the one-district one-factory (1D1F) initiative in Effiduase in the New Juaben North Municipality in the Eastern Region.

Known as Maagrace Garment Industries Limited, the factory is specially designed to produce utility clothing, uniforms for security forces and hospital scrubs among others, and would provide employment opportunities to over 500 young men and women in the area.

Commissioning of the factory set up by Mrs Comfort Owusu-Agyeman in 2003, was part of President Akufo-Addo's three-day working tour of the Eastern Region.

The factory was established with the vision of creating employment opportunities and providing training for the youth as part of the broader agenda to help address joblessness among young people.

However, its operations went down in the late 2000s, and in 2017 management of the company applied for support under the government's 1D1F initiative to resuscitate its operations.

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, it was one of the leading garment industries, which produced more than two million facemasks, 18,000 hospital gowns and head covers as well as 12,000 medical scrubs for export, one of the strategic objectives of the 1D1F initiative.

President Akufo-Addo commended the management of the Company and all other garments and textiles factories in the country for the support to the Government in the fight against COVID-19 by manufacturing locally, personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers and other professionals.

He said the government was ready to partner the private sector to boost the 1D1F initiative to create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth to transform Ghana's economy through industrialization.

President Akufo-Addo also commissioned a newly constructed administration block office complex for the New Juaben North Municipality and appealed to the assembly members to endorse his nominee Ms Comfort Asante for the Chief Executive position to continue the government's development agenda there.

Earlier, he inspected ongoing renovation works of the government hospital started in 1948 and paid a courtesy call on the Kwahu-Obohene to kick start his tour of the Region.

The President is billed to commission two other 1D1F factories at Akuapem-Akropong and Akyem-Wenchi as well as four new assembly offices in some districts.