By Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Accra, Dec. 14, GNA – Mr Abebe Haile-Gabriel, the Assistant Director for FAO Africa, has called on development partners to collaborate with government and the private sector to mobilise the necessary resources to modernise and transform the agriculture sector.
He said the collaboration should be done in a manner which recognises the importance of delivering economic growth, generating employment and protecting the environment.
Mr Abebe was speaking at the High-Level National Dialogue on Promoting Investments in Food and Agriculture; Recognising the Gains made and Future Perspectives by Government and the Private Sector in Accra.
The Dialogue is to promote sustained dialogue between the domestic private sector and government, reflect on government’s commitment to the Malabo Declaration, to discuss the agribusiness potential and development in Ghana, highlighting the opportunities and constraints of the domestic private sector in investing in agriculture.
It is also to discuss future perspective of agriculture growth and agribusinesses development in Ghana and to share with private sector the intent to deepen engagement and intent to offer a platform at the Africa Regional Conference in 2020.
Mr Abebe, who is also the FAO Representative for Africa, said the dialogue offered the opportunity for government and the private sector players to discuss with a view of having a consensus to increase the investment flow into the agricultural sector to drive industrialisation and economic in general.
He commended government for its enormous effort in creating the needed enabling environment and stimulating private sector investment through numerous initiatives over the year.
Some of these initiatives are the out growers and Value Chain Fund, Export Development and Agriculture Investment Fund and the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Product.
Mr Abebe said despite the numerous strides to stimulate private sector investment, the sector was confronted with various constraints such as inadequate access to finances and credit, and quality of public investment.
The rest are inefficiency of legal and regulatory frameworks, product marketing and accountability issues on the part of the private sector.
He said the transformation that is so much desired for the Ghanaian economy could be driven by the agricultural sector through a well-coordinated strategic investment approach.
Mr Collins Ntim, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Food and Agriculture, said government continues to put in place mechanisms and instruments to truly make the private sector in agriculture engine of growth and agent of transformation of the sector.
He said there is the need to continuously engage the private sector to better understand how the incentives and enablers were stimulating investment for agriculture and to hear their perspectives.
Mr Ntim said agriculture occupies a central position in the Ghanaian economy as it provides enormous opportunities to create wealth, jobs and to enhance livelihoods.
The Deputy Minister said the growth in the sector has bounced back and the provisional agricultural sector GDP growth rate has significantly increased from three per cent in 2016 to 8.4 per cent in 2017.
He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Bank of Ghana are rolling out the Ghana Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending to remedy the lower lending to the sector, because of risks and perceived risks linked to agriculture.
Mr Ntim said all government flagship programmes and other programmes are expected to loosen some of the bottlenecks and generate activity in both the downstream and the upstream side of the agriculture value chain.
He said there is no doubt that the private sector has potential to lift people out of poverty and income deprivation.
“A solid partnership between government and the private sector is imperative for the success of the agricultural transformation as well as government’s vision of Ghana beyond Aid,” he added.
GNA
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