The Hemp Association of Ghana (HAG) has signed a deal with a Ghanaian-owned Cannabis business operator based in Portugal.
The deal will gross a staggering $ 56 million in five years from merely cultivating and exporting industrial hemp from a land size approximating 100 acres.
The deal will rake in around $2.8 million per harvest of HAG’s industrial hemp on the planned 100 acres.
According to the partners, Industrial hemp has a 16-week maturity period, hence it can be planted and harvested around three or even four times a year in the sunny and tropical weather of Ghana.
Each year’s harvest will generate $ 11.2 million for HAG. And by the five-year lifespan of the deal, HAG would have accrued over $ 56 million in revenue.
Taxes to the Ghanaian government could gross over $ 10 million from just 100 acres of industrial hemp if the authorities evaluate the industrial potential of the plant taking the world by storm currently.
Soringa TM, the Ghanaian-owned company is a supply facilitator for a mid-tier Cannabis Start-up in Portugal and a bigtime player in the Cannabis value chain in the United States of America (USA). The deal was consummated in Accra on Friday, December 13, 2019 at the plush Alisa Hotel.
Representatives of HAG and Soringa signed the 20-page agreement which will be kick-started as soon as the Ghanaian Parliament causes the decriminalisation and or reclassification of Industrial Hemp from the list of Psychotropic narcotics captured in the narcotic control laws of Ghana.
The American and Portuguese companies who do not want their names mentioned now because of the regulatory situation in Ghana, have agreed to offtake all the produce of HAG as soon as the Ghanaian government grants them the license to cultivate industrial hemp.
“It is unfortunate that the Ghanaian government and lawmakers are dragging their feet in this burgeoning multi-billion dollars global industry-an industry that can exceed the value of crude oil in the nearest future,” says Raphael Ofori-Adeniran, the representative of Soringa TM.
“The point is this: There are Ghanaians living in countries that are eagerly lifting restrictions of Cannabis (especially industrial hemp which does not have any psychoactive effect) and these people are not waiting for the Ghanaian authorities to come off their stupor. We are putting our best foot into the doorway of this growing industry. It will be unfortunate that that all the revenues that Ghana could have made from its citizens involved in the industry are made to stay outside Ghana and for foreign economies to enjoy the tax benefits,” Mr. Ofori-Adeniran noted.
On his part, Nana Kwaku Agyeman, the President of HAG said: “HAG insists that the inexperienced drafters of Ghana’s drug laws blindly categorises industrial hemp as part of the basket of narcotics despite extensive facts to the contrary. They simply copied the laws passed in the United States without questioning.”
Nana Agyemang went on further to said that
“Cannabis is a plant that has two strains; one is popularly called Marijuana (Cannabis Indica), while the other is called Industrial Hemp (Cannabis Sativa).
While the former has the active ingredient THC that gives a “High”, the latter possess almost no THC at all and it has never been proven to cause any “High” as it cannot be smoked for any psychoactive effect.
Cannabis Sativa is used for over 50,000 industrial uses, including being used as a cheaper alternative to cotton, paper car dashboards, and building houses and for medicinal purposes.”
According to HAG, now the United States, Europe, Asia and some African countries have realised the mistake they made in outlawing the plant that holds such astounding industrial and medicinal use and they are frantically lifting the ban on it.
Meanwhile, Ghana which depends heavily on aid is still debating on whether or not to relax restrictions on Cannabis, [particularly for export purposes.
The Global Cannabis market is estimated currently at over US$ 100 billion and estimate for the next five years peg the market size at a staggering $ 300 billion.
“Many of the countries that are legalising cannabis do not even have conducive weather to cultivate the plant and so they have to resort to expensive artificial greenhouses, yet Ghana and Africa which has the most conducive weather to take advantage of this huge global market are still caught in an inertia, it is unbelievable,” the Soringa rep lamented.
BY Melvin Tarlue