My GH¢ 3 plantain comment misconstrued – Afriyie-Akoto

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, has clarified that his comments about low prices of foodstuff in the markets were completely taken out of context.

The minister, a few weeks ago, was roasted by the majority of Ghanaians for claiming at a press briefing that a bunch of plantain sells at 3 cedis as a result of the huge success of the planting for food and jobs program.

But speaking to Starr News in Parliament Thursday, Dr Afriyie-Akoto stated that he was misunderstood by Ghanaians.

According to him, he was referencing last year and not this year when he bought a bunch of plantain at 4 Ghana cedis in Accra.

“I was taken totally out of context and I am not prepared to go back there. If you look at the records, two years ago plantain was so low, nobody can deny that. We are are the ones who keep statistics of prices in the market.

“We have over 300 officials of the ministry in all the major markets in the country and we have the record and I can show you that at one point a bunch of plantains was indeed 4 cedis here in Accra but I was taken out of context and I am not ready to go on a wild goose chase,” Dr Afriyie-Akoto told Starr News’ Parliamentary correspondent, Ibrahim Alhassan.