Former CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi, has called on the Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto and the Chief Director of the Ministry to resign.
In a statement, Mr. Hosi, who has investments in rice production, criticised the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s approach to data and lack of consultation.
“Respectfully, the arm-chair analysis the Minister and/or MOFA [Ministry of Food and Agriculture] does with a culture of ‘knowing everything’, without adequate consultations and collaborations with industry, will take this country nowhere.”
“Your conduct and management of this matter is suboptimal and, respectfully, proves your unfitness to lead in the policy space for this sector,” Mr. Hosi said.
“I respectfully call on the Minister and his Chief Director to resign with immediate effect to save this industry from total collapse,” he added in the statement.
Mr. Hosi also said he did not find the minister as an honest policy partner.
He was responding to remarks from the Ministry about his presentation at the 3Business Agribusiness dialogue.
Mr. Hosi said his submission was about the failure to structure the agricultural industry through policy to make it sustainably bankable and attractive for investment.
He felt many of the investors in agriculture at the dialogue affirmed his experience, saying, “it is true”.
He noted for example that the ministry was not working with substantial data from farmers.
“MOFA has at no time assessed our production levels, despite the challenges we face. And same can be said for many other players in the rice sector. The culture of collecting installed mechanical capacity of mills cannot be a proxy for actual production.”
“I find it most unfortunate that despite being led by a PhD Agric-economist, the analytical capacity of the MOFA is one of mediocrity.”
These calls come amid Ghana’s economic crisis, which has been marked by steep increases in the cost of agriculture production.