Poland dumps Nigeria for Ghana as base for tractor plant, releases $100m
…As Ghanaian govt presents 2019 Budget Statement to Parliament
Though its main target market remains Nigeria, and other emerging sub Saharan economies, efforts to decipher why the Government of Poland avoided Nigeria and decided to set up a massive assembly and manufacturing plant for tractors and modern agricultural equipment in Ghana have failed.
Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief reports that the Ghanaian Ministry of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with the Government of Poland, will receive a $100 million concessionary credit facility to establish the project from 2019.
Though the scheme is coming under the African-Polish Cooperation Framework which also has strong footings in Nigeria, it was gathered that the tractor manufacturing plant would serve both the Ghanaian and ECOWAS markets geared towards supporting the Government’s Industrial Transformation Agenda in respect of rural industrialisation.
The Ghanaian Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Attah made the revelation last week while presenting the 2019 Budget Statement to Parliament in Accra.
Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports that presentation of the Budget is in compliance with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution, which requires the Government to present the Financial Policy Statement of the country to the Legislature.
Coming under the theme; “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity,” Ofori-Attah told lawmakers that it aims amongst other things, to modernising agriculture and industrialising the Ghanaian society, protecting the vulnerable and creating jobs and prosperity for the Ghanaian.
He further averred that the prevailing One District One Factory (1D1F) programme was a key pillar of agro-industrialisation, with many of the supported factories expected to process agricultural produce into ready-to-consume forms that were previously imported.
According to him, “Government would revive the textile industry by extending the stamp policy to the textile products to curtail smuggling and counterfeiting and undermining the industry, which could be a big source of employment”.
Other key points of the Ghanaian 2019 budget include relaxing Value Added Tax (VAT) on locally made textiles; employment generation; promoting Ghanaian participation in renewable energy sector with focus on assembly and manufacturing; setting up of National Development Bank (NDB) and others.
