FEASIBILITY STUDY OF ‘ONE DISTRICT ONE FACTORY’ POLICY IN GHANA.

Juliet Adu 1 and Emmanuel Opoku Kumi 2 . 1. School of Political Science and Public Management, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China. 2. Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Newham Campus, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 12 September 2019 Final Accepted: 14 October 2019 Published: November 2019

Industrial development potentially engender economic development. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in developing economies, inclusive and sustainable industrial growth must be promoted through small-scale enterprises for employment creation and also balance of trade deficit. Utilizing Losch"s Industrialized Location Theory, this study tentatively assessed Ghana"s policy on industrialization dubbed "One District One Factory Policy (1D1FP)"to determine its plausibility for economic opportunities. A qualitative approach was employed to gather expert views on the policy potentials and likely constraints. A purposive sampling of experts from academia, research institutes, policy think-tanks and INGO"s were the respondents for this work. The analysis showed that the policy has a potential to induce socio-economic transformation. However, most experts believe that the policy framework needs to be clearly developed to attract foreign investment. Further, about 60% of the respondents opined that the policy should prioritized sustainability of the intended factories rather than wholesale establishment of factories in each political district of the country.

Introduction:-
The relevance of industrial growth to the development of an economy cannot be over-emphasized. It is in light of this that Ghana has formulated the One District One Factory Policy (1D1FP) targeting at least a factory in each political district based on the availability of raw materials in a district. The economic system of Ghana can be described as agrarian with no value addition to the primary products. As a result, the country is currently grappling with over 200, 000 jobless graduates. It is envisage that the 1D1F industrial policy would go a long way to curb this joblessness problem. In addition, the policy aims at containing the volume of the nation"s imports, and increase the foreign exchange earnings.

ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 7 (11), 665-677 666 Industrial growth is believed to be a major driver of economic advancement of many countries in the world. In terms of industrial growth, Africa is the least developed region in the world [1] . The continent accounts for an insignificant portion of global industrialized output and manufactured exports [2] . Just a couple of its countries have the assembling capacity for technological advancements to boost the budding manufacturing industries [3] .
In many countries, the assembling area's commitment to GDP is under 20 for each penny and now and again lower than 7 for every penny. The creation of the part is vigorously focused on low innovation items, for example, sustenance, materials, garments, footwear, and so on [4] . The majority of African nations are yet to be engaged with any real understanding in the medium-and-high-innovation segments of overall assembling that have been described by dynamism and brisk development as of late. The African economic system is greatly dependent on the production and exports of primary products and eventually suffers from the associated dangers that come with this dependence [5] . The landmass must exploit new open doors offered by globalization by getting ready ventures, setting up strategies for overhauling, creating human resources, reinforcing its abilities for advancement, by tolerating the realities of modern growth [2] . Industrialized growth is a vital engine of economic advancement and development [3,6] .
The Sustainable Development Goals focuses on comprehensive and maintainable industrialized growth to facilitate small-scale industries and enterprises to create more employment opportunities and further, raise productivity [7] . Without industrialized zing, it is unlikely Africa and other least developing countries can meet the SDG"s targets by 2030 especially goal nine which emphasizes on the industry, innovation, and infrastructure [8] . It can, therefore, be deduced that the attainment of SDGs is interdependent on industrialized growth.
Moreover, former UNIDO Director-General Kandeh K. Yumkella reiterated the importance of industrialized growth as an effective means for Africa"s incorporation into the universal economic system [9] Africa remains the deprived continent of the world in spite of its vast resources and different industrialized growth strategies it has employed over the years [10] . This assertion is buttressed in the seven (7) paradox of Africa which highlights the resource endowment of Africa and yet being the less developed continent. Poverty is on the increase in 34 out of the 50 least developed countries in the continent. This shows how modest industrialized growth and marginalized the continent has being [8] . There is a strong relationship between industrialized capacity with respect to productivity, economic advancement, and level of development [11] .
Successive governments in a bid to salvage the situation have introduced some policy initiatives such as the economic recovery program, structural adjustment program, industrialized sector adjustment credit and vision 2020 [12] . These programs have not lived to expectation or not fully yielded the desired results. The failure of such policies are attributable to inability to uphold strict economic principles against political expedience, and lack of investment. The manufacturing sector holds the key to Ghana"s economic advancement through diversification from agriculture to other sectors [13] . With proper policies and investment incentives in place, the However, it is desirable to evaluate this policy initiative to ascertain its viability and strategically inform the implementation process.
The rest of the paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 provides insights into Ghana"s industrialization trajectory; Section 3 presents the research approach; Section 4 presents the results and discussion and section 5 concludes the paper.

Industrialization.
Industrialization is a financial measure tasked about the changing of crude materials and assembling of merchandise in manufacturing plants [14] . As it were, it is the way toward making items by utilizing apparatus and manufacturing plants. Also, in this manner, on and off chance that we process tomatoes, oranges or pineapples in an industrialized facility into canned tomatoes, squeezed orange and pineapple squeeze or blend every one of the three to get natural product squeeze in a container or in a jug, we will make these items or undertaking a procedure of industrialized growth. Industrialized growth is the alteration of an economic system from primarily agricultural to one based on the manufacturing of goods [15] . In other words, industrialized growth is the method of production that has ascended from the study of development and the use of scientific understanding [16] . This has to do with the division of labor, on specialization, uses mechanical, organizational and intellectual assistance in production. The main objective of this method of carrying out economic life, which had its origin in the mid-eighteenth century, has reduced the actual cost per unit of manufacturing goods and services [17] . The subsequent increment in yield per man hour was so huge as to stun the creative ability. The normal American laborer today delivers as much in thirty minutes as his British partner did in an entire working day a century ago and American specialist has ten times as his modern capital behind him since he could have a century back [17,18] .
Industrialization comes in various forms with diverse stages of development with time bounded. The order of industry into sorts or structures is chosen for a nation by its administration. An alternate arrangement of guidelines, allow rules, strategies, impose structure, and so forth win for every class. The initial areas have been industrialized are heavy engineering, textile mills etc. Going forward, it is envisaged that industrialization may embrace newer areas. Generally, the raw materials used and the end product determine the type of industry. Business chiefly in view of agribusiness or woods items, for example, coordinated sericulture and silk generation, agriculture and natural product changing, animal cultivation, dairy industry, poultry cultivating, fishery, tea planting and changing, espresso cultivating and changing, agriculture and herb changing, vegetable seed cultivating, mushroom, vegetable cultivating, tissue culture, greenhouse, beekeeping, nectar creation, elastic cultivating, horticulture and generation, and ranger service-related organizations, for example, leasehold backwoods, agro-ranger service, and so on [19,20] ISSN: 2320-5407

Effects of industrialization on economic growth.
Research on effects of industrialization on national economic growth is rife across the literature. The contribution of the manufacturing sector has been enormous in developing countries and this has set the pace for low-income economies to embark on various forms of industrial policies. According to Chen and coworkers (Chen et al. 2016) [21] , the total GDP contribution of China"s manufacturing sector is pegged around 60% over the last decade.
Similarly, manufacturing sector accounts for over 65% of European Union"s economy. A study by Shin (1994) focused on economic advancement in Korea in both local and hypothetical levels. The research documented the industrialized strategies and policies for government in collaboration with the private sector. Shin further considered socio--economic and environmental effects on local economics taken into account the partners. The study included research survey which had its focus on getting the opinion of the public on different degrees of issues for government institution, corporate human capital and the publics. Assessing from the point of view of Neo-Marxist, there is a presumption that where government and private sectors coordinate properly, businesses flourish. However, it can be adversely affected by externality from the global market environment. Robinson et al., (1986) [22] analyzed the relationship between industrialized growth and economic growth. Using information from a selected institution of industrialized and semi-business international locations, and after identifying some unlikely exceptions-poverty traps, persistence of the Dutch sickness phenomenon inside the primary quarter, and early improvement on export offerings, Robinson et al. claimed to have found sufficient proof to assist Kaldor´s hypothesis: Is commercial increase important to continued boom? Their models of the transformation recommend that the solution is generally yes. They concluded that on both empirical and theoretical grounds, the times for the substantial rising of the proportion of manufacturing are virtually a universal characteristic of the structural transformation [23] .  [24] . The study sets three essential goals, which include investigating the impact of financial and financial coverage on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), determining the connection between government using and business development and to decide the effect of the finances on investment or employment generation [24] . Utilizing secondary information from the 2011 bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and the Nigerian Nationwide Bureau of facts, the study detailed a model, which has GDP because the structured variable even as commercial output, foreign direct funding, interest rate, foreign exchange rate, and inflation charge have been independent variables. Everyday least rectangular (OLS) technique, F-check turned into used as analytical strategies. The Observer revealed that business increase has a bad effect on the financial boom in Nigeria in the end. This became confirmed with the aid of the F-take a look at a value (559.02). The examine recommends among others, that the authorities must redirect its industrialized and funding coverage that allows you to growth output of the domestic production (RGDP), bendy alternate rate and control inflation fee given that that confirmed that boom in exchange and inflation fee, reduction output, business, and investment coverage ought to be flexible on toddler industries to be able to inspire productivity and improve GDP [24] .

ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 669 The study of Tuyen and Tinh (2010) presents the effects of industrialized growth on economic and employment structure during the economic transition in Vietnam. The study speculates that while Vietnam has made substantial progress in altering the economic structure in which the proportion of agricultural contribution in GDP has dramatically reduced over the last two decades, the employment structure changed slowly. Also, it was publicized that the majority of the workforce is still in the agricultural sector. The capital-intensive nature of the investment in the nation under the economic reformation has failed to shift jobless workers away from the agricultural sector. This is hence a necessity for policy to be readapted to absorb the underutilized workers from the agricultural sector for the improvement of the living criterions for rural households [25] . labor multipliers, they showed that average multipliers in emerging economies are lesser relative to present achievements in the United States. The simple OLS estimates revealed that the multiplier for skilled jobs is 6 to 9 times larger and when using an instrumental variable strategy that exploits nation-wide variations in employment and initial cross-city industry specialization. While discussions about the inability of the manufacturing sector to absorb as many workers as it emerged they understand that its unforeseen impact on service employment is substantial. The study further concluded that emerging economies could generate significantly more jobs in the nontradable sector by shifting towards more skill-intensive production [27] .
Industrialization is the backbone of agile trade whether in the domestic market or foreign market. Growth in industrialization is usually fundamental to economic development, and for long-term alleviation of poverty. The more industrialized an economy becomes, the greater its trade relations become. More people concurrently become engaged in the industrial workforce as well as trade for both domestic and international. There is therefore the tendency for a reduction in unemployment leading to more poor people becoming income earners possibly at the minimum income wage [28] . Ranging from casual workforce to skill workers, the ultimate goal is for governments to create a sound and enabling environment that promotes growth and development for livelihood and the economy as a whole. Obviously, governments aim at employing capital intensive technique of production on a larger scale than labor intensive technique of production for mass export drive for foreign exchange earnings. Indeed, a sound industrialized economy entices foreign direct investment, and that trade becomes lucrative not only in the domestic ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 670 market but also in terms of exports. Though many people will still be seen in farming activities, commercial large scale farming contributes to minimizing the income inequality. Heckscher-Ohlin theory clearly explains the need for every economy to be self-productive in order to become active trade partner. Thus, industrial growth is correlated to trade [29] , but the effect on income disparity depends on the economic structures and socio-cultural characteristics of the economy. Generally, a high industrial growth and stronger trade developments reduce poverty rate because of the likely increase in the level of exports over imports.

August Losch and Industrialized Location Theory
August Losch discusses the location of industry, agricultural activity, towns, and regions. He outlines his theory of industrialized location in his book "The Economics of Location". Losch makes it clear that the one-sided orientation as proposed by Alfred Weber (theory of location of industry 1929) is not correct. The correct orientation is the twosided one, which is orientation by profit. The right location depends neither upon expenses nor upon gross receipts alone, to say nothing of any individual cost receipt component. The determining factor is their balance: Losch says the correct location of the individual enterprise lies where the net profit is greatest [11] . Hence, the proposed locations for the Government of Ghana"s District factories should be tentatively assessed along the principles of industrial location theory for their feasibility.

Methodology:-
The research adopted a descriptive case study approach. The design is ideal for its fact-finding and exploratory in the capacity of establishing the truth. The qualitative technique was used since the expected information from the field involved factual elements which have been presented using descriptive statistics. The target population of this study comprised of economic experts, University lectures, graduates, implementers of the policy and other citizens.
Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to select the respondents.
This study design was good for the study because it helped in analyzing the information provided by the respondents using questionnaires. The descriptive method is tasked with the conditions or relations that exist such as determining the nature of prevailing conditions, practices and attitudes.

Role of citizens in 1D1F implementation
The study analyzed citizens believes of their in the implementation of the 1D1F industrial policy. A pictorial representation of the findings is found in figure 1   ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 671 Figure 1:-The role of citizens in implementing the 1D1F project Responds on whether citizens have a role in the implementation and achievement of the policy"s objectives showed that out of one hundred (100) graduates drawn from bachelor degree, master"s degree and doctoral degree holders, seventy (70) answered "Yes", twenty-three (23) answered "No" and seven (7) people declined to give any answer.
Similarly, fifty (50) diploma holders sampled, forty-five (45) answering "Yes", five (5) answering "No" with no abstentions. Moving down the education ladder, one hundred and fifty (150) people were sampled from senior high school, junior high school, and others. With this demographic, an aggregated number of thirty-nine (39), forty-three (43) and twenty-two (22) respectively from senior high school, junior high school and others responded "Yes", eight (8), six (6) and twenty-six (26) answered "No" while none, one (1) and two (2) abstained. This indicates clearly that for the policy to be successful, the citizens have a vital role to play. This results show that citizens across along the social strata are poised to support government to implement the 1D1F industrial policy.   Res. 7(11), 665-677   672 gave a negative answer and the other one did not give any opinion about it. 50 diploma holders responded the questionnaires 40 of them said yes, 8 said no and 2 did not give any opinion which represents a positive correlation.

Economic impact of 1D1F
Moreover, 50 senior high school graduates and others who have no academic qualification reacted to the questionnaire and their response gave a positive correlation. This implies that the majority of people who responded to the questionnaire have a strong believe that industrialized growth can eliminate the problem of joblessness in Ghana. Figure 4-2 above gives detailed pictorial illustrations. Most underdeveloped countries experience higher rates of rural-urban migration in search for jobs. Establishing a factory in each district in Ghana will be a panacea for this challenge the country has been grappling with over the years. Moreover, the net balance of profit laid out in Losch"s theory of industrial location will be maximized as both direct and indirect jobs will be created within the various district localities

Impact of 1D1FP on Rural-Urban Migration
As already alluded to in this study, most underdeveloped countries experience higher rates of rural-urban migration as a result of job hunt. Establishing a factory in each district in Ghana will be a panacea for this challenge the country has been grappling with over the years. Moreover, the net balance of profit laid out in Losch"s theory of industrial location will be maximized as both direct and indirect jobs will be created within the district localities.
Results on the effect of 1D1F is shown in figure 3.

1D1F impact on productivity
Out of the one hundred (100) employed respondents, thirty-seventy (37) strongly agreed to the fact that productivity will increase if the 1D1FP is successfully implemented, sixty-one (61) also agreed, none of the respondents disagreed although two (2) stayed neutral to the fact the policy would increase productivity, However, on the retiree front, twenty-five (25) strongly agreed, nineteen (19) agreed and six (6) were neutral that the 1D1FP would have positive bearing on productivity. In furtherance, fifteen (15) students strongly agreed to a positive impact of the policy on productivity, seventy-five (75) agreed to that fact whiles ten (10) stayed neutral. The last of the demographic set which was the unemployed had theirs to say too. Out of fifty (50) respondents, the questionnaire ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 673 sampled, five (5) said they strongly agree, forty (40) people said they agree and five (5) presented themselves as neutral. It can be concluded from the above analysis that the 1D1FP will have a great impact on productivity in Ghana. (See Figure 4).

Discussion
The study assessed the feasibility of the Ghana government"s proposed industrial policy christened "1D1F". A tentative assessment of the policy"s plausibility was carried out based on the principles espoused in the theory of industrial location. The study observed that a good few of Ghanaians are ready to contribute to make the government"s industrial proposal a reality. They see industrialization as an antidote to the country"s teeming unemployment rate amongst the youth. The policy"s overwhelming support is also attributable to the common belief shared amongst majority of the citizens that Ghana"s economic woes are as a result of exportation of raw materials.
There is no doubt that a country"s economic development hinges partly on the manufacturing sector. Processed products yield more revenues when exported compared to unprocessed raw materials. Hence, most development inclined organizations have been campaigning for this kind of policy over the years. It is therefore not surprising the rapturous acceptance of the 1D1F.
The study also analyzed the political will of government in implementing the policy. It was revealed that even though, certain infrastructural projects have been undertaken in relation to the policy, the magnitude of work done so far could place the policy outside the core priority of government. Only a handful of the 21 districts have started work on any factory building. Most of the projects started already are rather crawling even at the initial phase. On the structure of the implementation board, government is operating what could be best described as decentralized system. Each district has 1D1F office where planning, costing and recruitment of staff takes place. However, these offices have not been able to wean themselves from politicization. Contrary to Weber"s bureaucratic ideals, the ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 674 policy risks of been saddled with political appointments against merit-based recruitment. Should government fail to address this problem immediately, the noble objective of this policy will be a mirage.
Another stunning observation of this study is the choice of factory locations. Most traditional authorities are constantly lobbying government functionaries to locate the factories within their jurisdictions. Apparently, lobbying is not abhorred in democratic governance, however, what is more worrying is the wanton disregard of the scientific consideration of the cost-benefit analysis bearing in mind availability of both raw materials and human capacity to man these factories in their intended locations. Losch"s theory of industrial location proposes a more verifiable and systematic consideration of the overall balance between cost and profit in citing a factory at any space. The government should therefore commission researchers and economists to undertake systematic studies in the entire 21 district to come out with ideal locations for these factories.
Even though, the 1D1F policy proposal has received the admiration many Ghanaians as well as the country"s donor partners alike, the government is yet to release implementation document on the project. There is no official policy draft certified by the peoples" representative arm of government. This poses danger to the continuity of the policy should the current government leaves office. It is therefore expedient for the present managers of the country to make public the policy"s implementation roadmap for transparency and continuity of this noble policy.
Undoubtedly, the success of these factories will greatly depend on agricultural production within the economy. The study observed that though agricultural productions within the country has not dwindled, however, government needs to up its efforts on planting for food in order to encourage production of more raw materials to feed the factories within the various localities. The sustainability of these factories will be thwarted if the localities are not able grow more raw products as the factories will have to rely on external sources of inputs for their daily operations. This situation if happens will defeat the original purpose and consideration of the theory of industrial location, thereby increasing operational cost. When operational cost increases, the profitability of such factories will be affected adversely.

Conclusion:-
The study indicates that there would be a great difference if Ghana implements its 1D1FP successfully. The policy considers the nation"s diversification of its product mix, with the intent of creating new roles better than the current system and able to produce the desired economic transformation. This paper submits that industrialized growth would be one of Ghana"s greatest developmental strengths instead of being a weakness in terms of economic growth. Industrialized growth based on the relative benefit of the districts is one of the keys to the nation"s development.

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Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(11), 665-677 675 From the study, experts in industrialized growth made it clear that some of the determinants of economic transformation for Ghana and other countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa encompass composition of population, diminishing agricultural sector with a corresponding sprout in productivity of manufacturing firms, migration of rural folks to urban centers and joblessness rate, and less industrialized companies. Due to this, the experts made the emphasis that through the 1D1FP Ghana would be in the position of solving these problems and improve economic growth.
Again, Ghana"s economic system will not experience any buoyancy in economic changes in the event where raw materials from the extractive sector is not transformed into finished and semi-finished products by the secondary sector of the economy.
It wouldn"t be easy for the government to mobilize fund to finance all the industries throughout the nation. Hence, it is vital for the government to work with the local private investors and the foreign direct investors so as empower and support the 1D1F project"s objectives, particularly to upsurge the competitiveness.