Ghana set to become major food exporter - BoG boss

Accra, Ghana - The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has expressed confidence in Ghana's potential to become a significant player in the global food export market.

Dr. Addison made this assertion while addressing the 5th-anniversary celebration of the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL).

Ghana's agricultural sector, according to Dr. Addison, plays a critical role in the country's economy, accounting for 34% of the workforce and contributing 19% to the nation's GDP. Additionally, food items constitute 43.7% of Ghana's consumer basket, highlighting the sector's importance to national food security.

To further boost the sector, Dr. Addison emphasized the need to reduce Ghana's reliance on food imports, which currently stand at $1.5 billion, representing 10% of total imports. By reducing imports, Ghana can preserve its foreign exchange reserves.

“Agriculture Financing is a critical strategy to Ghana’s development strategy due to the important role agriculture plays in the economy, particularly in employment and food security. From the Macroeconomic perspective, agriculture contributes about 24% of the GDP and employs an estimated 40% of the workforce,” he stated.

“Development within the agricultural sector is critical for the economy given the weight of food items in the consumer basket which accounts for 43.7 % and therefore a major driver of headline inflation in this country."

Dr. Addison noted that promoting export-oriented agriculture would not only increase foreign exchange earnings but also improve food security, create employment opportunities, and drive economic growth.

“It’s also instructive to know that on average, food imports nearly account for 10% of total imports, translating to about 1.5 billion in terms of import values.”

“The agricultural sector also holds a huge potential to help boost our country’s foreign exchange reserve. First, as an import substitution strategy, sufficient food production locally, will the food import bill [be enough] to prevent hard-earned forest exchange reserves.

“Secondly, through the export promotion strategy, Ghana could become a major food exporter which would improve the sector’s foreign exchange earnings,” he added.

Source: Lead News Online