Researcher, Dr Kwabena Apenteng, has punctured holes into government plan to introduce restrictions on rice and chicken imports into the country, describing it as wrong, ill-timed and unwarranted.
Dr. Kwabena Apenteng, the former president of Ghana Rice interprofessional body’s argument is that “policies like this should have been built on credible statistics and data. But I say without any fear of contradiction that the figures shown in the policy document are completely cooked. They are wrong, and those sponsoring this document and policy know that the data provided do not reflect the truth. For instance, nowhere has this country ever imported 1.2million tons of milled rice. How did they arrive at the national milled rice figure? Ghana does not produce 40% of our rice demand. The best we did was about 30% under late Courage Quashiga.”
He charged farmers to ask themselves when last they saw an assign of the government in their farms ready to collect data on how much rice, soya beans or maize they have produced.
“Indeed, most of these produces even leave the shores of the country right from the farm without the knowledge of the government. Indeed, foreigners from our neighbouring countries come in and sponsor our farmers to produce either rice or soya beans for them without any knowledge of the government. How can you suddenly claim you know their production figures?” he quizzed.
He posited in statement released on Wednesday that, “For credibility of this policy, there should have been visible massive investment in the rice and poultry sectors. As the same policy document highlights, poultry farmers can hardly find day old chicks to buy. Even the chicken we call local, how local are they? The day-old chicks are imported from Holland or Morocco. The current poultry producers can hardly satisfy the demands of even the supermarkets. The cost of production is very high that the ordinary Ghanaian can hardly buy a local bird for the family. Currently, a live bird of local chicken is 120 cedis. How affordable is this to the ordinary Ghanaian worker?”
Read the full unedited statement from Dr Kwabena Apenteng, lampooning the Rice Policy:
Researcher, Dr Kwabena Apenteng views on the restriction on Rice and chicken Imports.
I see the plan of the government to introduce restrictions in rice and chicken into the country as totally wrong, ill-timed and unwarranted.
As a researcher and one who has deeply been involved in the rice sector for well over two decades, I don’t see pillars laid by the previous government nor this current government to warrant this action over night.
I see from the policy document of the government a complete business plan put together by one or two people for the benefit of a few at the expense of the ordinary Ghanaian. Let no one
be deceived that this is nationalistic and for that matter good. Yes, nation’s dependence on imports for a bulk of its food stock is bad. But ask yourself what foundations have you seen this government laid in the rice and chicken sectors to warrant this scam of a policy.
What has been this government’s contribution to the rice and poultry sectors in terms of production, processing and marketing? We need answers to why rice importers could not find local rice to buy when this same government introduced restrictions in rice imports between 2019 -2021.
You know, policies like this should have been built on credible statistics and data. But I say without any fear of contradiction that the figures shown in the policy document are completely cooked. They are wrong, and those sponsoring this document and policy know that the data provided do not reflect the truth. For instance, nowhere has this country ever imported 1.2million tons of milled rice. How did they arrive at the national milled rice figure? Ghana does not produce 40% of our rice demand. The best we did was about 30% under late Courage Quashiga.
How did they arrive at the 5.1tons yield per hectare for rice? What is the current yield for irrigated rice, lowlands and upland rice? You don’t play with data when it comes to issues pertaining to the livelihood of the people.
Ghanaian farmers should ask themselves when last they saw an assign of the government in their farms ready to collect data on how much rice, soya beans or maize they have produced. Indeed, most of these produces even leave the shores of the country right from the farm without the knowledge of the government. Indeed, foreigners from our neighbouring countries come in and sponsor our farmers to produce either rice or soya beans for them without any knowledge of the government. How can you suddenly claim you know their production figures?
As a former President of the Ghana rice interprofessional Body, I know for fact that we not even know how many rice farmers we have in the country nor do we know how many hectares of land is under rice or soya beans cultivation.
You know, rice production is not garbage collection. So, the fact that one has seemingly succeeded in collecting garbage does not mean he can hoodwink the whole nation to believe that he can produce rice and chicken overnight. We have been on this route several times before and government should have learnt from the mistakes of previous governments rather than behaving as if this action is utterly new.
For credibility of this policy, there should have been visible massive investment in the rice and poultry sectors. As the same policy document highlights, poultry farmers can hardly find day old chicks to buy. Even the chicken we call local, how local are they? The day-old chicks are imported from Holland or Morocco. The current poultry producers can hardly satisfy the demands of even the supermarkets. The cost of production is very high that the ordinary Ghanaian can hardly buy a local bird for the family. Currently, a live bird of local chicken is 120 cedis. How affordable is this to the ordinary Ghanaian worker?
The quest of the government to create quota system for rice and chicken imports is a recipe for broad day corruption. Who does the allocation? And what is the person’s interest against the collective of the nation? Players in the poultry sector are still filled with memories of happenings when we took same route in President Mahama’s era. Quotas have never served the interest of any nation besides the individual interest.
What we are going to see with the introduction of the quota system for rice and poultry imports is a sharp rise in the prices of these products because players will pass the cost of bribes to the consumer. So those for those Ghanaians about to celebrate this policy, be ready to pay more for rice and chicken than you are doing now. We saw it in the previous
government where the price of 10kg of chicken immediately went up from 40 cedis to 60cedis and later to 70cedis because players were passing the cost of bribes to the consumer.
Ghanaians will pay dearly for either local or foreign rice and chicken if the government goes ahead with this scam of a policy.
Noble as the sound of this policy is, the government must shelf it for now for the overall good of the Ghanaian especially when food prices are currently very high and the cost of living unbearable.
Bank of Ghana released its full-year 2022 audited financial statements on 28th July 2023. The financial statements reported a total loss of GHS60 billion, which has since become a matter of unfortunate politicisation. It is noteworthy that GHS53.1 billion of those losses were a direct result of the Government’s domestic debt restructuring exercise (phase 1 and II).
It is important to put the Bank of Ghana’s 2022 financial results in proper context with a clear statement of the problem that Ghana faced and the chronology of events in Ghana since 2019.
There was a clear mismatch between revenue inflows and expenditure financed in 2020 by exceptional support from the IMF and World Bank resources, and in addition to financing from the Bank of Ghana through the issuance of the GHS10 billion Covid-19 bond.
As a result, sovereign spreads on Ghana bonds widened, signalling investor dissatisfaction with the stance of fiscal policy. The Budget for 2022, which was read in 2021, failed to address fiscal concerns as the Budget was even more expansionary by about 23% with a raft of revenue measures to raise financing. As a result, the Credit Rating Agencies further downgraded Ghana’s sovereign debt rating, which blocked Ghana’s access to international capital market borrowing.
This triggered a liquidity crisis, spilling over into a balance of payments crisis. External and domestic payments needed to be made, the domestic auction was failing, and the Bank of Ghana had to step in to arrest a major economic and social crisis. In 2 months, the Bank of Ghana lost US$500 million in reserves and built significant overdraft with the government as a result of the auction failures. It became clear that Ghana was on a path that was unsustainable, and the Government had to approach the IMF for support in July 2022. The IMF process included putting into place a credible programme of reform, which included restructuring of the total government debt to sustainable levels. Until Staff Level Agreement with the IMF was reached in December 2022, the Bank of Ghana had to continue to provide the necessary support to keep the economy running.
In line with the provisions of the Bank of Ghana Act, (Act 612), as amended, the Bank informed the Minister of the developments in its finances. The Minister reported this to Parliament as part of his briefing to Parliament on the IMF programme and the Domestic Debt Exchange.
A major plank of the corrective action required for the IMF programme was the Domestic Debt Exchange, where the stock of Government of Ghana debt was to be halved from 105% of GDP to 55% of GDP by 2028. The holders of Government debt had their debt instruments exchanged for new ones with lower interest payments and longer terms. Despite the losses inflicted on households and banks, the threshold of 55% of GDP was not met. The Bank of Ghana was used to close the gap to enable Ghana meet the debt threshold that qualified Ghana for the IMF programme (Bank of Ghana therefore, acted as a loss absorber). This
means the Bank of Ghana had to absorb a 50% haircut on its non- marketable holdings of Government debt instruments. This singular act led to significant impairment losses of GHS 32.3 billion to the Bank’s accounts. Impairments of marketable instruments also accounted for another GHS16.1 billion, bringing the total impairments of Government holdings to GHS48.4 billion.
As experienced by central banks globally, price and exchange rate movements led to a loss of GHS5.2 billion whiles impairments of Cocobod loans amounted to GHS4.7 billion. This is the reason the Bank of Ghana reported a loss of GHS60 billion in 2022.
Central banks are not commercial banks. This financial outcome has very little implication for the operations of the Bank of Ghana as supported by evidence from other central banks. Technically, Central Banks cannot be insolvent or bankrupt.
Bank of Ghana assures key stakeholders and the general public that we are committed to the highest standards of prudent management, governance, and transparent accounting and audit practices.
