A farmer cultivating crops
President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the rapid decline of the agricultural sector in favour of the services sector is normal.
According to him, the contribution of the agriculture sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) must decline as the country develops.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting with the Ghanaian business community organized by the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) recently, President Mahama said, “The services sector has overtaken agriculture as the highest contributor to GDP which is what it should be when a country is developing.
The contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP has declined since 2009 from 31.8 percent to about 12.8 percent in September 2015.
Many have attributed the decline to government’s refusal to invest in the sector, which has imposed untold hardship on farmers and denied many jobs.
Government, in its 2016 budget, allocated GH¢501.5 million to the agric sector, a mere 1.2 percent of government’s total expenditure.
Agriculture will continue to decline and the services sector will continue to increase, as well as manufacturing, construction and mining and quarry. And so that is the way it should go, President Mahama said.
“For all the developed countries, contribution of agriculture to GDP is the smallest. But of course, it does not mean that you are not producing enough to feed yourself,” he said.
The President said government was looking at other ways to support the private sector apart from borrowing, saying “that is why the Ghana Export and Import Bank has been established to support businesses and create import substitution which has begun with the pharmaceutical and poultry companies.”
“We will continue to look at how we can improve lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We will continue to ensure that we attain micro economic stability because it is the most dangerous threat to the private sector,” he said.
By Cephas Larbi
cephrok@yahoo.com