The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Enterprise Federation, Nana Osei Bonsu, says the ongoing Ukraine war should be seen as an opportunity to grow Ghana’s private sector, especially in the area of agriculture and food production.

According to him, the Russian blockade on Ukrainian wheat exports amidst the war is a perfect opportunity for the local private industry to step in and provide an alternative solution – or grain – to satisfy the demand for baking flour.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, he noted that instead of relying on wheat imports, local bakeries could switch to locally produced sorghum, corn, or cassava flour for their baking needs.

“The local private sector is hurting, and this Ukraine-Russian war is an opportunity for the local private sector. Why? Basically because everybody is lamenting on the curtailment of wheat and others, but we have various grains that can substitute for the wheat.

“When I was the CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation for one year, our Christmas hampers were made up of bread, cookies and all the baking stuff from sorghum, soybean, cassava and corn, and they tasted exactly the same,” he said.

He added that this was a great opportunity for government to put in place a policy that will require all baking products to contain a percentage of local grains.

“So instead of looking at what is not coming in, this is an opportunity for the government to make a policy – every baking product in Ghana has to have a percentage of the local grains. That is the law.

“If you do that everybody is going to shift and it’s going to create opportunities for the bakers, and farmers. These are tools that the government has to use instead of us sitting around and saying ‘oh this doesn’t come in so we’re not going to be able to do that’,” he said.