Deputy Finance Minister explains how 1D1F will tackle high inflation rate

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has explained how the One District One Factory (1D1F) programme will help address the issue of high inflation in Ghana in the near future after attributing the the rising inflation rate in Ghana to import.

With the factories coming on stream, she said, the rate of import will drop because most of the materials are going to be produced locally to support the economy.

Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Williams Evans Nkum on Monday May 16, she said “With the inflation we will all admit that a chunk component of the that is due to imported inflation. That is why government , when you look into the 2022 budget government has put aside more than 2012 million Cedis to boost the 1D1F programme.

“So far government has opened 158 district factories at various stages of completion, we will not see the effects now but we are hoping that within five and ten fives years, we should be able to produce most of these things that we import that has contributed immensely to our inflation going up.

“The vision of this government is that we are hoping that as we put more money into 1D1F, we will be able to get factories across every district and we will be able to produce some of these things that we import.”

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Tsornam Akpeloo, has also said premium should be placed on domestic production of goods in order to halt the rising rate of inflation in the country.

In his view, there is no way the country can deal with the increasing rate by not having clearly defined locally produced items to consume.

“There is no way we can come out of this problem by not having clearly defined locally produced items to consume. The call to localize is what we are asking for to stabilize our system,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday May 14.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced on Wednesday May 11 that the national year-on-year inflation rate was 23.6% in April 2022, which is 4.2 percentage points higher than the 19.4% recorded in March 2022.

The month-on-month inflation between March 2022 and April 2022 was 5.1%, the GSS said on Wednesday May 12.

Four Divisions, Transport, Household equipment and Routine Maintenance, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, recorded inflation rates above the national average of 23.6% with Transport, 33.5%, recording the highest inflation.

This month’s food inflation, 26.6%, is higher than both last month food inflation , 22.4% and the average of the previous 12 months 13.5%. Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation however, decreased from 51.4% in March 2022 to 50.0% in April 2022.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta attributed this to import.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday May 12, Mr Ofori-Atta said “Today, 41 African economies are severely exposed to, at least, one of three concurrent crisis, rising food prices , rising energy prices , tightening financial conditions Finance Ministers now call it the dreaded three Fs; Food, fuel and financial conditions.

“That is just a ripple through in all Africa, and food prices easily about 34 per cent higher , crude oil prices some 60 per cent higher and global inflation has risen , we saw our numbers yesterday moved to 23.6 per cent, a good chunk of it being imported inflation.”

Source: 3news.com|Ghana