Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry in charge of Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi has clarified government’s objectives for incorporating the Enabling Youth Enterprise under the One District One Factory Policy.

With this initiative, young people are put into groups and funded to roll out mainly agribusiness industries.

The project with funding from the African Development Bank was singled out for praise by the President during his 2022 State of the Nation Address.

President Akufo-Addo disclosed during his speech that in order to bring the youth on board the one district, one factory programme, 58 out of the 278 1D1F projects have been developed as enterprises fully owned by youth groups.

He further explained that each of these youth companies are owned by between 40 and 50 youth as shareholders and have direct support from the government.

In an interaction with Citi Business News, a deputy Minister for Trade and Industry Michael Okyere Baafi noted that all youth, no matter their educational background, are qualified for the Enabling Youth concept.

“Young people across the country are invited whether you’re educated or not. The essence is that we want to put young people in groups in the form of a co-operative so that they’ll be able to share ideas and run a business. The good news is that the business resource centers that we have serve as consulting offices to help them develop the businesses and also to grow their capacity so that they can manage the business well.”

Mr. Okyere Baafi further outlined the plans being made by the government to ensure a successful implementation of the policy.

He said “out of the 58 companies, 57 of them are fully completed except that not all the 57 have machines. We are still in the process of procuring machines for these companies which are scattered all over the country.”