Akoto Factor: Hunger in Ghana reduces by 50% due to PFJ while other African countries suffer

The 2022 Global Hunger Index report reveals that Ghana's hunger score by December 2022 had declined by more than 50 percent since the year 2000 under former President Jerry John Rawlings-led NDC Administration.

Ghana, in 2000 scored 28.5, a score which placed Ghana in the list of countries under the Serious Hunger category.

Between the years 2000 and 2022, Ghana has moved from the Serious Hunger Category in 2000 to a score of 15.50 in 2016 under former President John Dramani Mahama and finally to the list of countries under the Moderate Hunger Category with a Score of 13.90 in 2022 under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo under the management of Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister of Food and Agriculture whose tenure spanned between 2017 and 2022.

The 2022 Global Hunger Index Score of 13.90, therefore, places Ghana at the seventh (7th) position on the African Continent with Tunisia first (1st) with a score of 6.10, Burkina Faso twenty-first (21st) with a score of 24.50, Rwanda twenty-fifth (25th) with a score of 27.20, Nigeria twenty-sixth (26th) with a score of 27.30 and South Sudan at the forty-fourth (44th) position with a score of 49.90.

This, therefore, positions Tunisia in the list of countries under the Low Hunger category, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Rwanda under the Serious Hunger category and South Sudan under the Alarming Hunger category.

Moreover, during the Crans Montana Forum held in November 2022, where critical issues of global food security were discussed, some of the panelists, including representatives from Ghana, credited the Nation's flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Policy under Dr. Akoto for the tremendous and imperative impacts on the hunger reduction in the Country.

This, therefore, positions Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto as the best Food and Agriculture Minister in the history of the Country as well as the best Minister under the President Nana Addo-led NPP Administration between 2017 and 2022.

Hhhmm, May God be praised always.