Fixing The Country: Open Letter To The President Of Ghana On Some Woes Of Ghana And The Way Forward - Part 13

Dear His Excellency President Nana Addo

It is undeniable fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is the causal effect of a global economic depression (downturn) same as what happened over 100 years ago has contributed partly to the current suffering (hard times) globally. Sir, the measures such as lockdowns, restrictions in movement, the border closures, the spraying exercise of public institutions and markets coupled with provision of logistics and other support which were conducted by the State to contain and control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic as a measures to reduce casualties were very unique (incomparable) activities in the history of this Country. Thanks for that godly effort. But, how to restore the economy as a result of the associated of massive debilitating effect on the national budget is a now a cause to be considered by all. Although the repercussion of COVID-19 pandemic was global and not restricted to one nation or continent, the extent or damages to a national economy may not be the same for each country in the World just like the number of casualties for instance death sustained were not the same for each country or continent.

Furthermore, it is undeniable fact that the Russia-Ukraine War has also weakened and is still weakening the economy of nations globally but unlike repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated risks with the Russia-Ukraine War, that is the extent of economic challenges or survival depends on two main factors. Firstly, how the economy of a Country was and is managed to be self-sufficient (both microeconomics and macroeconomics) before the war and during the period of the war as well as the behaviour of the citizens especially how productive/items produced (microeconomics) and secondly on the needs of the Country from other nations especially from the area of the war or from the belligerents that is the exchange activities and sort of goods consumed by the citizens especially interest in foreign as against same local products say grains like rice etc. That is to say the level of independence or dependence on other Nations for needs especially food items etc because an economic blockade will affect the supply chain of items from the belligerent countries or through their corridor or issues affecting production problem that may affect the dependent nations.

But Mr President, mismanagement of this great country since 1980s to date is the major contributory factor to the woes of this great nation endowed by God with rich resources including abundant sunshine and this with the massive arable lands which are interspersed with numerous rivers has made this nations to have a great potential for massive farming of both cash and food crops especially grains like rice production under irrigation. Mr President, this Country imports rice in large quantities and therefore with great value in foreign currencies but has a better comparative advantage in the production of rice than Nigeria and had a 10 years strategy from 2008 to 2018 for massive production of rice as food security, sustenance or generating of additional employment above all as import substitutions to improve the macroeconomics fundamental (savings and generation of foreign currencies, halting of food price driven inflation etc) is yet to achieve the feat made by Nigeria within 6 years from 2014 to 2020. It is also sad that this Country is yet to make good of some rivers for cheap mini-hydro power generation to supplement that of Akosumbo and Kpong Hydroelectric power dams for industrialization, commercialization and domestic consumption. Below are some areas of concern which need your intervention.

Firstly, I wish to draw your attention to the Mining sector which has been mismanagement since 2006 with the passage of the Minerals and Mining Law 2006 (Act703). The law on Small Scale Mining is ambiguous and need to be fine-tuned to meet the reality on the ground. Mr President, Small Scale Mining or Artisanal Mining existed before the arrival of the first group of Europeans in 1471 and it is seen as a global catastrophe which nations together with the International community and NGOs/CSOs collaborate to help the operators to navigate to alternative livelihood projects or guide them to operate for some time and invest the obtainable income in other business areas and stop the Small Scale Mining activity which is regarded globally by the operators as a livelihood activity given to them by Almighty God as a means to solve their poverty or misery situation.

So, with this situation, Mining Officials of the State are expected to regard Small Scale Mining as a national emergency area due to the likelihood of the operators to destroy the environment through diverting and polluting of rivers and water bodies, damaging lands including arable lands without reclaiming or restoring the land to almost its original state and the irresponsible abandonment of pits by them which may be death traps if not noticed in time. Other issues include poor regulations or enforcement of laws regulations and poor monitoring or corrupt practice and these give room for smuggling of gold or a medium for money laundering and other vices.

So Mr President, it was and is expected that the State will act as follows (a) ensure the operators operate in the small mining scale sector work in cooperatives of 10 or more Ghanaians only and should be designated as community mining which should be governed at the local level by their own leaders who can be held accountable or responsible for any untoward act and governed by the local District Mining Committee with membership as spelt out in the current law but to include the District Police Commander and District NIB Officer and the traditional leaders or their reps to collectively ensure the artisanal mining operation is responsible. (c). Since mining is capital intensive, the State is expected to the interest of Ghanaians or take interest to support Ghanaians to gain commanding heights in the mining sector by allowing Ghanaian tycoons interested in mining operations to openly collaborate with foreigners with the needed capital (sophisticated technology and substantial cash) to mine for gold by the creation of a third or new nomenclature as a Medium Scale Mining sector, so that they operate with laws and regulations almost similar to that for large scale mining to ensure the protection of the environment and their processing or smelting of gold is guided with metallurgical security codes to ensure the gold so obtained is well accounted for without hoarding or smuggling of the gold in order to enable the State benefit substantially from the Mining Sector. Hence Mr President you need to come out with a Medium Scale Mining for Ghanaians to be allowed to collaborate with foreigners since mining is capital intensive.

Secondly, the mismanaged of the Energy Sector by various Administrations since 1982 especially the time the National Electrification Scheme was launched by the PNDC in 1995 has caused and is causing huge energy sector debt of over US1Billion or so with the vision 2020, that is the plan for the attainment of 100% National Electrification on the National grid nationwide by 2020, which made Ghana to attain about 85% by 2016 with poor transmission (losses due to long range transmission/acquisition and installation of costly pylons enroute and poor) distribution system. This policy was pursued without adequate means/measures to put some areas off the National grid say mini-hydro power station on some rivers or waterfalls or with renewal energy etc, failure to protect the Osagyefo Barge bought with US$250Miilion loan by the PNDC and now a scrap or not protecting the potentialities of rivers in Ghana like Ankobra, Tano, and Oti for cheap min-hydroelectric power system and irrigation systems against illegal mining activities by all regimes. The possible usage of these rivers as mini-hydro power stations were studied and planned for action by both the late General Acheampong and the late Ex-President Liman’s regimes so as to construct mini-hydro powers stations for cheap power to supplement that of Akosumbo hydro powers and that of Kpong hydro powers Dams before and after the Bui hydro power Dam was built.

The plan to use some river for as mini-hydro powers stations was to prevent employment of expensive Thermal Plants which burn on distillate or gas also at a very high cost for generation of power. There was also failure for measures for the reduction of wastages in power utilization (through power saving means, worth stated that President Kofour attempted and saved about 500KW of power but not maintained), another problem was poor cost recovery measures (example some areas had no meters example Prestea before 2015 and Somanya before 2021), furthermore failure to invest in the elaborate usage of renewable energy to add to the power mix to reduce cost. Likewise the failure to adopt a policy to ensure the vital parts of the national economy such as the industrial sector and commercial sector enjoyed 24/7 supply of cheap power for their business, so as for them to be in good business and readily pay for the power and so as not to hamper economic growth with the domestic sector on off the grid during prolong dumsor periods. Hence you need to invest in the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam for hydro-power, irrigation, arrest of the perennial destruction of life and property anytime the Dam at Burkina Faso requires spillages stand see to renewal energy to reduce cost. Work on ways to use the so called unutilized extra power on the take or pay arrangement in the system to save money.

Thirdly, since economy is about the immense set of inter-related production, consumption, and exchange activities that aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated. So each country sees to the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services to deliver the needs of the citizenry, which is about scare or limited resources therefore prioritization of needs and come out with a choice for the most pressing need or the one that can help generate revenue to recoup cost and use the revenue to invest in other areas. But the economy of this country has been mismanaged by failure to prioritize the needs of this country by not doing massive investment or budgetary allocation for the transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector which is a source of livelihood for the rural people hence a sector of employment for 60% of the citizenry, source of revenue or for wealth creation and development an area Ghana that can save and generate foreign currencies through import substitution.

Mr President, Agriculture as in Proverb 27;23 is the venture that can provide stability and sustenance for the existence of States or Kingdoms therefore mankind. Because with Agric products one can barter for other needs (generation of both local revenue and foreign currencies) or one can feed himself and family (food security) during period of hardship or food insecurity. Pardon me to give two personnel experiences to drive home, the point of survival through Agric productions as in proverb 27;23, before I expatiate on my submission on the way forward to achieve self-sufficiency, save and generate more local revenue and foreign currencies.

Mr President, after completion a BSc course in Agric at KNUST, I was posted to Bompata Secondary School for my national service where I was made as the Head of Agric Department as well as the Tutor in the Agriculture subject. To make a mark in the name or to the Glory of God, I made the School to establish farms in the production of maize and other suitable crops and lucky for the School we had bumper harvest in maize etc to the extent before the nationwide bush fire in 1983 so the school depended on her food items harvested on her farms during the 1983 year of suffering in Ghana due to food shortage etc the school had enough food items from her Farm also in the subsequent year of 1984. COP Maame Tiwa Addo-Danquah was one of the students at the Bompata Secondary School can authenticate this assertion.

Mr President, after graduating from the Military Academy, I was initially posted to the Field Engineers Regiment Teshie and later on posted to the defunct Ghana Armed Forces Farms established by the late General Acheampong in 1978. I was assigned to 3 Farm Company Sunyani where I established both maize and Plantain farms in Nkronzah in the then Brong Ahafo Region and hard bumper harvest that helped improve the revenue base of the Unit and sustained the Unit until 1990 it experienced some problems. I became the Commanding Officer of the Unit (CO-GAFF) with the rank of Captain in 1991 at the time the Unit was already earmarked for disbandment due to State of the national economy and the Unit was then depended on subventions directly from the Ministry of Finance through the then Secretary of Defence (then Hon Alhaji Iddrissu Mahama) As the CO-GAFF, I protested vehemently against the disbandment of the unit and together with my staff we worked diligently both day and night that saw the Unit making reasonable profit (documents including a commendation letter SP SVCS BDE/540/G dated 15 December 1991 from Superior Military Headquarters available to authenticate this assertion. My work with the defunct GAFF gave me the intelligence how the Agric sector is not getting the right support to help this nation break through.

Mr President, in July 2003, Heads of African States made the Maputo declaration on Agriculture and Food Security aimed to increase annual national budgetary allocations for agriculture to at least 10% to ensure food security and therefore improve the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). So in 2008 President Kofour came out with the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS), this was after the IV Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD IV) in May, 2008 and came out with an initiative and launched the Coalition for Africa Rice Development (CARD). So, the Ghana subscribed to the vision of the Initiative to double rice production in Africa within 10 years from 2008 -2018. This was aimed at to ensure massive domestic rice production by the year 2018 as well as to enhance quality to stimulate demand for domestically produced rice. So, the subsequent administrations of the late President Mills and ex-President JDM Mahama also bought this vision to ensure massive rice production in Ghana. In 2017 you, President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government launched your flagship agricultural policy that is the PFJ, a four-year investment of GHS3.3bn ($713.1m) nationwide programme designed to improve the performance and size of Ghana’s agriculture sector to boost food security and create jobs.

Mr President, as stated my experience at the defunct GAFF on poor investment by the State in the Agric Sector and research work have both revealed that various Administrations of Ghana since 2008 made only pay lip services without ensuring self-sufficiency in food items including rice production to save and generate more foreign currency through import substitution. This is so because you and the past Presidents of Ghana failed to dedicate reasonable national budgetary allocations to the Agricultural sector. Hence Ghana with a better comparative advantage in rice production than Nigeria failed to make a great impact or break through in rice production or in the Agricultural sector within 14 years from July 2008 to July 2022. But Nigeria attained massive rice production with President Buhari because of a strong will power coupled with the support or effect of Hon Abraham Odoom (a person with only practical experience in farming or has no notable PHD (Pull Him Down) degree. Through the massive investment by Nigeria and Hon Abraham Odoom’s commitment and sacrifices for comfort, Nigeria was able to produce very large quantities of rice within a very short time of 6 years between 2014 and 2019 as import substitution which could Ghana was not able do in 14years so as to ban the importation of rice like Nigeria.

Mr President, I have identified Ghana’s inability to achieve massive success in the Agriculture sector especially rice production as due to the Ghanaian attitude especially lack of commitment, too much bureaucracy, wastage of monies in seminars, adoration for PHD (Pull Him Down) degree Holders no wonder a man by name Dr UN was able to con some Ghanaians including intellectuals to pay for some cheap Doctorate Degrees without sweat or hard work in the academic field coupled with the lack of the political will by Presidents and the very low investment in the Agric Sector.

Mr President the ensuing figures would show that your Administration woefully failed to allocate at most 10% of the budgetary allocation to the Agric Sector despite both the Maputo’s declaration to allocate 10% of the budgetary Expenditure or allocation to the Agric Sector and your mantra of Ghana Beyond Aid or your intention to change the Goggisburg economy to a modern one. Sir, out of the entire government expenditure you allocated a mere 0.71% in 2017, then 0.79% and 0.86% in 2018 and 2019 respectively and in 2020 and 2021 the allocations were 0.68% and 0.56% entire government expenditure respectively thus a decline from 0.71% to 0.56% in 2021. Sir, this need to be reversed for Ghana to break through.

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Sir, Food Security is yet to be attained in Ghana because Ghana depends from imports to feed the citizens, for instance the consumption of rice exceed domestic production with 66% of rice consumed being imported. The economic costs of depending on imported rice are very high and surging with urbanization, with income levels and the population explosion. Sir, between 2007 and 2015 the amount spent on imported rice rose from $151m to $1.2bn. Ex-President Mahama Administration made a good attempt and reduced to $300million in 2016 by producing locally about 577,977 tonnes of rice but the import of rice surged to about $370Million in 2017 despite the increase in production of local rise from 577,977 tonnes 721,610 tonnes of local rice in 2017. Hence Ghana has lot to do.

So, in 2017 Ghana is reported to have produced 721,610 tonnes of rice against the consumption of 1.3m tonnes, hence a deficit of 580,300 tonnes which should be very easy to attain or surpass if efforts (funding and commitments) are doubled. Sir, figures from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), revealed that the rice deficit has been on an upward trend since 2011, from a deficit of 354,762 tonnes in 2011, rising to 503,875 tonnes in 2013, to a peak of 608,602 tonnes in 2015, before falling to 577,977 tonnes in 2016. And that Domestic rice production grew from 44% of total consumption in 2016 to 47% of total consumption in 2017 thus a modestly reduction of the import burden. The national statistics revealed that the rice deficit continued to grow even as the total domestic output of rice increased by 27% in the five-year period between 2013 and 2017, from 569,500 tonnes in 2013 to 721,610 tonnes in 2017.

Hence, Mr President with our current economic situation the need to see it as a game changer and select an Agric product say poultry, maize or rice and give a special attention same as President Buhari did with Rice Production between 2014 and 2020 so that you could be in the position to build strong economic fundamentals, through strong growth of GDP, saving of and generating of more foreign exchange, generating revenue or wealth, increasing jobs, reduction of food driven inflation etc. To succeed you need to work together with the Bank of Ghana to be able to provide massive budgetary allocation to the Agric sector for massive transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector especially with credible Agric infrastructure namely irrigation dams, feeder roads, warehousing etc and mechanization of the sector with tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters, credit facilities and marketing through credit facilities as done by ADB and or by off-taker agreement with Rice Millers so that the Rice Millers enter into contract with the farmers and give them some credits, so that the farmers supply the rice to the Rice Millers at prevailing market price for local rice to avoid side-trading.

Best regards.

signed

MAJOR MOHAMMED BOGOBIRI (RTD)

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