FLASHBACK: Ghana imports old newspapers for wrapping purposes, others - Kwame Sefa Kayi

Media personality, Kwame Sefa Kayi lamented Ghana's excessive import situation whiles adding that this is a huge contributing factor to the country's woes.

He added that Ghana imports so many basic items that can be produced in the country.

“Do you know we import old newspapers in this country?” Sefa Kayi asked

Read the full story originally published on 13 August 2022 by GhanaWeb

Ghana’s economic woes are caused by many factors and according to the host of Peace FM’s Kokrokoo and his panelists, the country's over-dependence on imported stuff including old newspapers is one of these factors.

On the August 9, 2022, edition of the show, Kwame Sefa Kayi and his panelists, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Opanyin Agyekum, and Nana Akomea, spent close to five minutes talking about how old newspapers are imported into the country just for the purposes of wrapping food items and some other things.

“Do you know we import old newspapers in this country?” Sefa Kayi asked Kwesi Pratt who had earlier expressed shock in Ghana being the third biggest importer of tomato paste from Germany.

Going further to read a message from a listener of the show, Sefa Kayi said “We import old newspapers with our dollar. Go to Lapaz right now, there’s a 40-footer container offloading old newspapers.”

Nana Akomea who was shocked to hear this said if the purpose was to wrap food items, then traders can use locally produced newspapers.

“Every day you have over twenty newspapers here in your studio, why don’t they come for some,” Nana Akomea said.

Adding his voice to the issue, Opanyin Agyekum explained why Ghanaians prefer the imported newspapers

“While I was schooling in Russia, I witnessed some Ghanaians gathering old newspapers. Their newspapers are wider than ours so Ghanaians believe those ones can wrap items better.”

Coupled with the ink used in printing newspapers, the panelists noted that the long period exporters spend to gather a container full of these newspapers, as well as the duration the papers spend on the sea during shipping, was worrisome and posed a danger to one’s health.

Guinea fowls and bottled water are things the panelists pointed out were also imported.

“This is our problem. It is all part of the reasons our economy is not going well,” Kwesi Pratt stated.

For Opnyin Agyekum, "the quest to live big is what is killing us the most."