Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto Pledges to Increase Credit Access for Farmers and Boost Agriculture in Ghana
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister of Agriculture and current presidential hopeful, has promised to prioritize the enactment of a law requiring all commercial banks to increase loanable funds to agriculture and its value chains. The move is in response to the difficulties farmers face accessing credit at all levels. Dr. Afriyie Akoto believes that agriculture has the potential to generate substantial export earnings, which can be used to fund industrial development, and social sectors, and reduce the country’s dependency on external sources of funds.
As part of his plan to revive the Ghanaian economy, Dr. Afriyie Akoto plans to establish a Tree Crop Development Authority to coordinate and promote the development of six tree crops – cashew, rubber, oil palm, coconut, mango, and shea. These crops, he believes, have the potential to earn the country between $6 billion and $12 billion per year, enough to wean off the country’s financial dependency on the IMF and other bilateral donors.
To ensure that farmers’ produce gets to the market, Dr. Afriyie Akoto plans to provide the necessary supply chain logistics and expand market access through infrastructure projects such as feeder roads, rural electrification, irrigation, and storage.
During his tenure as Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Afriyie Akoto launched the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ initiative, which saw the procurement and distribution of 1.4 million metric tonnes of fertilizer and 93,192 tonnes of improved seeds to over 1.7 million farmers between 2017 and 2021. The interventions, which cost GH¢2.6 billion, led to an increase in maize production from 1.7 million metric tonnes in 2016 to 3.6 million metric tonnes in 2021, rice production from 688,000 tonnes to 1.2 tonnes, and soya production from 143,000 to 230,000 tonnes over the same period.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto believes that there are things a President can do that a Minister cannot do. With his plans for the agricultural sector, he hopes to prove that agriculture can bail out the country’s economy without borrowing from creditors. The presidential hopeful has promised to prioritize agriculture if he is voted as President of Ghana.