The Alliance for Development and Industrialisation (ADI), a think tank, is asking the government to consider the new coronavirus pandemic as a wakeup call to grow the country’s industry.

“We consider this a compelling opportunity to be innovative as a country and change our old ways as a people. We humbly submit to the President to change the Ministry of Agriculture to Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agro industries, since food security is very much important to us as a nation”, ADI said in a statement, Wednesday.

In the press statement issued in Accra and signed by Francis Mensah, the Convener of ADI, the group said the government needs to invest at least $2 billion to make Ghana’s agro-industry self-sustaining to avert the repercussions of the deadly COVID-19.

The $2 billion would aid in reviving most of the collapsed industry in the country as well as cut down on the country’s import drastically, the group said.

“If the COVID-19 is not well managed and we fail as a country to take advantage of it to revamp our industries, it would plummet our economy and also put our free SHS program at risk.

“There is a need to adopt a strategic approach for the country to benefit from this pandemic. We need to adopt an approach that would help to sustain the economy, the free SHS and the budget”, the statement said.

It urged the government to be proactive in finding other ways to shore up the economy because the price of crude oil on the international market has dropped by almost 50 per cent, a situation group notes will affect the country’s projected oil revenues.

With the $2 billion, the country can also improve the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative, the group said.

 “We can optimise the PFJ with focus on post-harvest management and processing. Through this, we can have an excess of food to take care of the country,” the statement said.

According to the statement from ADI, Ghanaian industries currently need tax incentives adding that imported goods into the country attract only 3 per cent VAT whiles local manufacturing attracts 17.5 per cent.

Also, interest rates have to be extremely attractive, said ADI.

The ADI has expressed the need for government to set up an inter-sectoral committee to transform the private sector as a pivot for the change, with members from the agricultural sector, Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) and top Ghanaian industrialists, finance and trade experts.

“What we need to understand is that everything of ours as a country is at risk including government’s flagship programmes such as the free SHS, we need a non-partisan approach to succeed in this,” the group said.

Ghana currently imports more than $350 million worth of juice every year, which puts pressure on the cedi.

“What we need as a country is to build more factories like the Ekumfi kind of, so the country could save the $350 million,” it said.

The ADI has asked the government to consider turning the Komenda Sugar Factory into a commercial alcohol processing factory as well as other ethanol factories to support the pharmaceutical companies as a base product for producing hand sanitizers.