The John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation, the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), and other stakeholders, have lauded President Nana Akufo-Addo for directing all State institutions to procure Ghana rice.
Mr. Akufo-AddoAddo during his recent media encounter, announced that beginning from January 2020, all State institutions, agencies and departments should consume made in Ghana rice.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, addressing the media at a press conference on Wednesday in Accra, said “the President’s directive comes at a very opportune time when local producers, together with Government and importers are working out modalities for import substitution in the rice sector.”
Prof. Agyeman-Duah added that “we are unreservedly happy by the President’s directive that all State institutions should procure Ghana rice.”
He said that directive will go a long way to revitalize the Ghanaian rice industry “which has been blighted by decline.”
He reiterated the commitment of stakeholders in the sector to creating a viable domestic rice industry, with the aim of making Ghana self-sufficient.
According to him, “we believe that the government’s target of achieving self-sufficiency in rice production by 2023 is achievable and we will work to support this goal.”
Measures
Outlining measures to support the realization of the President’s vision, he noted that “the Foundation and it’s partners shall, as a matter of urgency, work out strategies for improving service delivery by developing a monitoring mechanism to ensure that public institutions adhere to the directive of the President.”
He added that the Foundation shall in partnership with other stakeholders, evolve effective and institutionalized monitoring and evaluation frameworks/strategies for monitoring and or evaluating the compliance with the directive.
Furthermore, the CEO noted that the Foundation shall support the value chain actors to forge closer ties to address the challenges of the rice sector and create the most conducive environment.
According to him, the interest of the Kufuor Foundation is to ensure that Ghana becomes rice self-sufficient and by so-doing save the country an amount of $1.3 billion used to import rice annually.
By Melvin Tarlue