The Minister For Food and Agriculture, Dr. Afriyie Akoto, has lamented the little attention commercial banks have given to Agriculture in the country.
The Minister was on Citi Fm today to discuss the success and challenges of the Agriculture sector under his watch for the pass six years. Many issues were raised during the interview and the Minister in answering a question about rice production and storage in Ghana lamented how Agriculture has been abandoned by the commercial banks.
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto said during the interview: “The banks have not helped us. And I keep saying that the commercial banks in this country have vacated agriculture and in spite of the life that we have put into the sector, they have sat on the sidelines watching us”.
The comment was made in response to a question that came in to seek clarification as to why there is more milling capacity than rice available. By this the Minister clarified and he said,
“No, we do not have, it is the reverse. Milling capacity is just 415 000 mt if you put all the mills together. We’ve done the calculations, we have sat down with the millers. Our paddy production last year reached 1.1 million mt. So we have less than half of the milling capacity for rice. Even the current milling capacity, only about 70 per cent of them or less is being used because the banks are refusing to give working capital to the millers.”.
The NPP Presidential hopeful added that Nigerians have taken advantage of this to make money: “That is why the Nigerians come and take our paddy to go and mill and make all the money in their countries”.
To help address this issues, the Minister is working to get investors and he is also arranging for a meeting with the commercial banks, including the President of the country, and the Governor to make a case for investment in agriculture.
“I am trying to get investors to come and invest in the milling capacity. In fact we have arranged a meeting with all the commercial banks and the governor and the President himself present for me to make the case to them that it is about time they came in because government has done enough with the tax payers money and they have to come in with agricultural credit”, the Minister said.
