President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr Kofi Nsiah-Poku, says worsening water shortages are severely disrupting production and threatening Ghana’s industrialisation drive.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, he described the situation as critical, especially for beverage manufacturers that depend heavily on water as a primary input.

“It is so bad in the sense that for about two weeks, water wasn’t running,” he said.

According to him, even when supply resumed, it has been unreliable and limited.

“When it started, they rationed it twice a week, and it ran for about only six hours,” he explained.

Dr Nsiah-Poku revealed that his own fruit juice production facility has been directly affected.

“I also have an industry there producing fruit juice, and they work only twice, and we have to buy water from outside to put in the water tanks before you can do production,” he said.

The added cost of sourcing water externally, he indicated, places additional strain on businesses already battling high operating expenses.

He warned that such conditions undermine Ghana’s ambition to industrialise.

“As a nation, we cannot industrialise with this kind of situation,” he stressed.

Beyond the water crisis, Dr Nsiah-Poku pointed to the broader financial environment that has constrained industry growth in recent years.

He said high interest rates previously made borrowing unattractive for businesses.

“Even before, the interest rate was so high that, you know, it was not worth borrowing money to do business,” he stated.

Instead of investing in production, he suggested that capital flowed into safer government instruments.

“It was rather more interesting to really change your money, your asset, into cash, and just go and buy treasury bills,” he said.

The result, he noted, has been declining industrial activity and rising unemployment.

“So unemployment has become very high because the industry is not growing, it’s rather falling,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Poku, however, believes the country has reached a turning point.

“We’ve come to a point where we have to reverse it, and that is what I’ve come to do,” he declared.

His comments highlight mounting concerns within the manufacturing sector that unreliable water supply, combined with past financial pressures, is stalling growth and limiting job creation.

For industries that rely on water daily, the crisis is no longer an inconvenience. It is a production threat.