Mahama Announces 3 New Textile Factories for 2027 Under $10B New Economy Programme, Pledges $2 Billion Annually for the Job-Rich Sector.

President John Dramani Mahama announced the launch of a major industrial expansion scheme by the government of Ghana to fund job rich sectors with $10 billion New Economy Programme, pledging $2 billion annually. To achieve this, the government will finance the construction of three new textile factories by private investors in 2027 as part of a strategy to turn Ghana into a regional manufacturing hub .

The announcement was made on Thursday, 15 th October 2026, during a working tour of the Greater Accra Region by the President, who was accompanied by the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Hon. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare and the CEO of the Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA) Dr. Mary Awusi. The President began his tour by cutting the sod for the massive 1,238 acre Afienya Industrial Park, to be constructed as a modern and eco-friendly development to host over 120 enterprises in pharmaceuticals, vehicles and garments, providing key physical infrastructures such as electricity, water and waste treatment systems for domestic and international manufacturers to ramp up production and exports.

The President later toured the Bright International Industrial Zone at Afienya to learn of the extent to which manufacturing activities in the new industrial estate were contributing to employment. He toured several factories in the industrial zone including Huaguang New Energy Battery Ghana Limited, Zema New Energy (specializing in solar panel and battery manufacturing) and the Funsheen Truck Assembly Plant. He also toured Qianfeng International Corporation Limited, a manufacturer of sports vest and caps and Jiudine Ghana Corporation, a ready-made garment factory, which makes Tshirts and sweaters.

The industrial tour concluded with a visit to the Dignity Do The Right Thing (DTRT) Apparel Limited, a major garment manufacturing house in Ghana with operations partly based in the Tema Free Zones enclave. The Managing Director, Salma Salifu gave a tour of the facilities and the President commended the company for its tremendous contribution to local employment as a home-grown enterprise. The President noted the phenomenal growth trajectory of the company from when he first visited their Accra operations where it had 500 workers to the current 6000 workers mostly vulnerable women who are recruited and trained from the ranks of the head porters or kayayei.

In the President’s commitment to ramp up employment, he announced his intention to heavily subsidize training costs for a massive new factory to be built by the DTRT group. The new factory is expected to host roughly 5,000 workers per shift in three consecutive shifts to align with the government’s much-publicized 24-Hour Economy , a policy intended to create jobs by encouraging businesses to stay open through night. President Mahama said that there was a need for aggressive expansion of capacity in the textile sector to cater for the huge influx of secondary school leavers into the domestic labour market, which the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme had opened up.

In his effort to woo investors, President Mahama acknowledged challenges being faced by industry in the new Customs Act, 2026 and assured them that they could expect state intervention to resolve the impasse soon. He noted that businesses had complained extensively that the new Act was rolling back key tax and operational incentives that Free Zones enterprises had enjoyed. The President said that a meeting would be held next week with the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, the GFZA and the Ministry of Finance after the Finance Minister returned from the World Bank and IMF autumn meetings, to resolve the issues.

While the executive is pushing hard to rehabilitate garment infrastructure in Ghana, it is set to intervene in town and country planning to achieve its objective of repositioning Ghana as an industrialized economy. Early this month, the President announced similar plans for the recently reclaimed 16 acre Agbogbloshie landfill site in Accra to be converted into an industrial hub with a textile factory. By intervening in the environmental cleanup, regulation and massive capital investment in infrastructure development in alignment with the $10 billion New Economy blueprint, the government hopes to insulate the Ghanaian economy from import inelasticity and cushion the youth against unemployment.