Rename Agric Ministry - Think tank

In the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with Ghana having recorded nine cases as of Thursday morning, a think tank, the Alliance for Development and Industrialisation (ADI), has called on the President to change the name of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agro Industries and give the ministry an additional mandate over food processing.

food security

“We humbly submit to the President to change the name, since food security is very much important to us as a nation,” it said.

Speaking with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, the Convener of the pro-industrialisation think tank, Mr Francis Mensah, said Ghana should consider the COVID-19 pandemic as a wake-up call for deepening the country’s industrialisation.

“We consider this as a compelling opportunity to be innovative as a country and change our old ways as a people,” he said, adding that the government needed to invest $2 billion to position Ghana in a self-sustaining manner to avert the deadly COVID-19.

The $2 billion would aid in reviving most of the collapsed companies in the country, as well as cut down on imports drastically, he said.

“If the COVID-19 is not well managed and we fail as a country to take advantage of it to revamp our industries, it will plummet our economy and also put our free SHS programme at risk.

There is the need to adopt a strategic approach for
Ghana to benefit from this pandemic. We need to adopt an approach that will help sustain the economy, the free SHS policy and the budget,” he said.

“We need to be very proactive in the sense that the price of crude oil on the international market has dropped by almost 50 per cent, which will affect our projected oil revenue,” he added.

Mr Mensah said with $2 billion, Ghana would be able to improve on the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, after it had identified all the bottlenecks.

“We can optimise the PFJ, with focus on post-harvest management and processing. Through this, we can have excess food to take care of the country,” he said.

Ghanaian industries

According to him, Ghanaian industries currently needed tax incentives, explaining that imported goods attracted only three per cent VAT, while local manufacturing attracted 17.5 per cent. Meanwhile, the local manufacturer paid salaries,
pay as you earn (PAYE) taxes, as well as Social Security and National Insurance Trust contributions of its employees.

Also, he said, interest rates had to be extremely attractive and comparable with those in other industrial countries.

private sector

He expressed the need for the government to set up an intersectoral committee to transform the private sector as the pivot for change, with members from agriculture, the Private Enterprises Federation (PEF), top Ghanaian industrialists, finance and trade experts.

“What we need to understand is that everything we have as a country is at risk, including the government’s flagship programmes, such as the free SHS. We need a non-partisan approach to succeed in this,” he said

The country currently imports more than $350 million worth of juice every year, which puts pressure on the cedi, he explained, adding: “What we need as a country is to build more factories like the one in Ekumfi, so that Ghana can save that money.”

Mr Mensah further asked the government to consider turning the Komenda Sugar Factory into a commercial alcohol processing factory to support pharmaceutical companies to produce hand sanitisers.