The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has urged the government to abandon the 24-Hour Economy policy and return to the One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, made the call while seconding a motion for the House to adopt the Committee’s report.
He cited official data from the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) showing that at least 150 factories were operational under 1D1F before the programme was suspended.
“The National Development Planning Commission of the Republic of Ghana reports in the annual progress report for 2024, which was published in June 2025, that there were 150 one district, one factory operating. It is not my report. It is the NDPC’s report,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah told Parliament.
“The policy architecture in place that would have given birth to a lot more has been removed, and now we are replacing it with a 24-hour economy policy, which is now, we are told, hinged on a 24-hour economy market and incentives that are yet to be birthed.”
The former Information Minister argued that the government’s decision to scrap 1D1F and replace it with the 24-Hour Economy has yielded no tangible results, nearly two years into the administration.
“As we support the motion that this House should adopt this report, our recommendation, our advice includes the fact that this administration should go back to the 1D1F programme,” he said.
“Go back to that programme. And if you have specific issues that you think you can amend in that programme, correct it. Because two years after you took away that programme, your replacement programme is not delivering any new factories, is not delivering your 24-hour economy, is not delivering your one trade shift as you promised.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah drew attention to the impact on the automotive industry, noting that under the 1D1F policy architecture, incentives were provided to automobile companies for local assembly of cars.
“You have suspended all of those as part of the reset. And today, the automotive companies are complaining that the incentive is gone,” he said. “So we encourage you, go back to it, correct whatever errors you think you may find.”
The Ofoase-Ayirebi MP warned that suspending 1D1F while waiting for a yet-to-materialise alternative is costing the economy dearly.
“Every day that we stay without an industrial programme of this nature, which will incentivise the private sector to create more factories and create more jobs, every one of those days, the opportunity cost is hundreds of thousands of young Ghanaians who are sitting at home without jobs,” he said.
Citing data from the Ghana Statistical Service, he said youth unemployment has risen to approximately 32.4 per cent.
“The last time we shared with you the data on youth unemployment, the source is the Statistical Service of the Republic of Ghana, which says that youth unemployment is now at 32.4 per cent,” he said.
“Every day we stay without an industrial policy that we have suspended 1D1F and we are waiting for a 24-hour economy, the youth are out there without jobs.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah stressed that while 1D1F had its challenges, it was at least delivering measurable results through factory creation and industrial expansion.
“Within that policy architecture, Mr. Speaker, you will recall, incentives were given to automobile companies to locally assemble cars,” he said.
“To suspend it while we are now going to build markets is not in the best interest of the Ghanaian economy.”
While supporting Parliament’s adoption of the committee’s report, Mr Oppong Nkrumah insisted that industrial transformation must move beyond campaign promises to measurable results that create factories, expand production and provide sustainable employment.
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