The One-District-One-Factory initiative has generated an estimated 170,000 direct and indirect jobs, with 321 projects at various stages of implementation across 142 districts, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has said.

Delivering a lecture on centre-right governance, Mr Afenyo-Markin described the policy as the clearest expression of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition’s commitment to private-sector-led development.

He characterised the initiative as a deliberate attempt to “democratise industrial capitalism” by decentralising production and extending industrial opportunities beyond established urban centres.

According to figures he cited, by the end of 2023, 169 factories were operational while 152 were under construction, covering approximately 54 per cent of districts across Ghana’s 16 regions.

The Minority Leader said the policy was designed to reorient Ghana’s industrial structure away from dependence on raw material exports towards value addition and district-level manufacturing. Through tax and duty incentives, the initiative supported agro-processing ventures and light industrial enterprises, enabling local businesses to scale production.

He argued that the framework reflected a centre-right philosophy in which the state establishes the enabling environment for enterprise, while individuals and firms drive value creation.

Mr Afenyo-Markin said the socio-economic dividends of the programme were visible in employment generation, skills development and local wealth creation. In his view, the initiative advanced the concept of a “property-owning democracy” by moving citizens from what he termed economic spectatorship into active participation in productive activity.

He also referenced the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, which he said created more than two million jobs between 2017 and 2019, as an extension of the same ideological approach within the agricultural sector. 

The programme, he noted, shifted farming from subsistence support to productivity-based empowerment by providing subsidised inputs, extension services and access to guaranteed markets, thereby positioning agriculture as a commercially viable venture for smallholder farmers.