The CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) , Mr. Yofi Grant has described as unacceptable the increasing volume of imported food into the country.
According to him, Ghana imported about 2.2 billion dollars worth of agriculture food that could have easily been produced in the country.
He maintained that the issues posses a challenge to the country and its foreign earnings, since Ghana must rather be seen to export such agriculture produce and not import them.
Speaking at the 2017 edition of the Citi Business Festival, Mr. Grant assured that government and the GIPC are working to reverse the situation.
“Today we are importing approximately 2.2 billion dollars of food when we have more than 8 hectors land lying fallow in the SADA region that can be cultivated. Even if we use half of the 2.2 billion dollars to invest in food programs will have enough” CEO of The Ghana Investment Promotion Center, Mr. Yofi Grant said at the launch of the Citi Business Festival.
He added that government will continue to identify individuals interested in agriculture to give them support to increase their output.
“I believe we will go far but obviously we haven’t done it and there are other people who are looking to invest in it, we have been speaking to investors who are particularly interested in entering the agric space at the producer level but there are also people interested in in entering at the processing stage along the value chain and I think that if Africa is to play its part as a credible investment opportunity in the world then governments should make agriculture lead the way,” he suggested.
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
