Agriculture can finance Ghana's debts, industrialization agenda - Dr Afriyie Akoto

Former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has noted that agriculture has the potential to generate enough revenue locally that can help Ghana finance its compounding debts.

He stated that the agricultural sector, when well invested in, can also push the government's industrialization agenda forward.

In an interview with Daily Graphic, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said, "...All I am saying is that if properly invested in, agriculture holds the potential to generate enough local revenue and foreign exchange to finance our industrialisation agenda and all our debts."

The former agric minister said Ghana can generate a lot of revenue from tropical plants such as rubber, oil palm, and coconut among others when exported.

The reason he introduced the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) during his tenure of office.

He explained that the Tree Crop Development Authority was established to regulate the production, processing, and trading of six tree crops - cashew, shea, mango, coconut, rubber, and oil palm.

Dr Afriyie Akoto said a feasibility study conducted on TCDA shows that $5 million was needed annually for three years as a fund for seeds under this programme.

The target, when hit will help farmers receive seeds for free.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s public debt stock stands at GH¢575.7billion, a report by the Bank of Ghana has shown.

This amount represents 93.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.

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