Border Closure: Ghana To Follow Nigeria’s Lead

• Border Closure: Ghana To Follow Nigeria’s Lead

Like Nigeria, Ghana is also planning to close its border in order to prevent rice and poultry importation.

This plan will be fully implemented in the next three years, according to Ghana’s Agric Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto.

Afriyie-Akoto on Wednesday disclosed that plans are underway to “establish the local capacity” to meet demand so that merchants would trade with local farmers.

The country’s Deputy Trades Minister, Robert Ahomka Lindsay had said rice alone takes 82 percent of all imports in the country, which means most of the rice that is been consumed in the country are foreign rice. This cost more than $1billion, almost two percent of the country’s (Gross Domestic Product) GDP in 2018.

If the border closure policy is achieved as planned by Nigeria too, the country will become an exporter, hence increase the value of the country’s currency and boost the GDP.

To ensure this, Afriyie-Akoto said the government intends, with the help of its flagship planting for food and jobs programme, to increase the yield of farmers.

While speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express programme, he said the move does not violate World Trade Organization (WTO) protocol.

The government has been selling fertilisers to farmers at subsidised rates as part of the planting for food and jobs programme.

With 50 per cent government subsidy on fertilisers for smallholder farmers, the number of farms produces tripled from three bags of rice per acre to 10 bags.

It also created jobs of 745,000 in 2017, which according to the Minister has increased to 900,000.