Seedling suppliers for Green Ghana Day owed GH¢4m

The Forest Plantation Development Fund (FPDF) board owes seedling producers GH¢4 million for the service they provided during last year’s Green Ghana Day tree-planting exercise.

Matching the FPDF’s asset value of GH¢2 million against the debt owed to the seedling producers sets off half of the debt and leaves the arrears at GH¢2 million.

However, almost a year after providing seedlings for the planting of over 10 million trees on June 7, last year, the arrears are yet to be cleared.

Also, in the absence of a board for the Fund, the arrears remain until a new board is reconstituted to look into the details of the arrears for possible payments to be made.

This came to light when the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, paid a working visit to the FPDF to familiarise himself with the operations of the board.

In a presentation made by a technical officer at the FPDF Secretariat, Jason Nunoo, it emerged that the key issues confronting the board were a continuous drop in funds from primary sources; poor monitoring of disbursed funds; and inadequate structuring of the secretariat.

It was recommended that urgent action be taken, including diversified funding sources, enhanced monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms to address the challenges confronting the Fund.

Context

The FPDF was established under Act 583 of 2000 and amended by Act 623 in 2002 to provide financial support for private forest plantation development on lands suitable for commercial timber production.

Additionally, the Fund offers research and technical advice to individuals engaged in commercial plantation forestry.

The FPDF draws its funding source from two main sources — proceeds of export levy imposed under the Trees and Timber Act 1974 as amended by the Trees and Timber Act, 1994 (Act 493) as well as grants and loans for encouraging investment in plantation forestry.

Relevance

Mr Buah said the objectives for the establishment of the fund over two decades ago were still relevant today, given that the country was grappling with the challenge of planting more trees to restore the degraded landscape.

In that regard, the minister commended the FPDF’s Secretariat for their efforts in promoting forest plantation development despite the challenges. 

“I believe the objectives of the Fund Board are relevant to the environmental restoration agenda of the government, and the new administration will revisit its affairs to make it more effective,” he said.

Action

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Yusif Sulemana, described the indebtedness of FPDF to the seedling producers as a worrying development that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.

He said a new board of the Fund would be reconstituted to look into the circumstances surrounding the arrears and take appropriate action on it.  

Mr Sulemana said processes would be initiated to amend the Act which established FPDF to transform it into a state agency with enhanced mandate.

“The FPDF is currently a board, and by its status, they need to have a secretariat which should not have more than four people managing it; but as we speak, more than 20 people are managing the secretariat,” he said.

The deputy minister added that upgrading the status of the board would strengthen their mandate and functions to meet the current situations and challenges confronting the country.

“Everywhere you go, you would realise that there is a clamour for the reclamation of our degraded lands.

If the FPDF secretariat is already producing seedlings to support people who want to go into plantation, it is appropriate to support them to expand their scope so that they can do more,” he said.