The Chief Executive Officer of Ishmael Yamson & Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, says the NPP government misplaced its priorities when it invested more funds in food generation than job creation.

This follows the launch of Phase Two of Government’s flagship programme on agriculture, “Planting for Food and Jobs,” at the University for Development Studies, in Tamale.

The five-year programme, which is expected to create more than 420,000 direct and indirect jobs along the value chain, is already receiving $62 million in support from Brazil while the government of Czech Republic has voted €10 million for the intervention over the five-year period.

But speaking on JoyNews PM Express, the renowned business management consultant expressed concern over the increase in the unemployment rate due to the policy decisions made by government.

“We went through how many years of planting for food and jobs? We did not get the food, we did not get the job but the money was spent.

“So where growth should come for me is agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism because they employ a large number of people.

“If you go to the factories in this country right now, I can bet you that nine out of ten are shedding numbers. So those figures that we are quoting, we must always ask what they mean to us and to our people because if poverty levels are rising, then we have a problem,” he said.

Mr. Yamson also lamented the increase in food prices in the country despite the introduction of the planting for food and jobs policy.

“I used to buy a bunch of plantain for GHs25. Today, the same bunch I am buying for GHs120 and we are in the food harvest season right now so if today I am paying three times for the same plantain I used to pay GHS25, then my question is what has happened to agriculture?

“Don’t go very far. We used to buy coconut in Accra for 50 pesewas and people were complaining but today, it is GHs5. I understand that a chunk of the cost is coming from transportation but even so, should we go from 50 pesewas to 5 cedis,” he asked.

Background

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday, 28th August 2023, launched Phase Two of Government’s flagship programme on agriculture, “Planting for Food and Jobs,” at the University for Development Studies, in Tamale.

Targeted at building on the successes of the initial programme, the second phase of the programme is a five-year master plan for the transformation of agriculture in Ghana with focus on modernisation through the development of a selected commodity value chain and active private sector participation.

Speaking at the launch, President Akufo-Addo stated that the second phase, by design, “takes a holistic view and places greater emphasis on value chain approaches by focusing on strengthening linkages between actors along eleven selected agricultural commodity value chains broadly categorised into grains, roots and tuber, vegetables and poultry.”

He added that Phase Two of the Programme also seeks to improve service delivery to maximise impact, and substitutes direct input subsidy with smart agricultural financial support in the form of comprehensive input credit, with provision for in-kind payment.