Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the current high food prices and pressures on the local currency validates the current focus of the GhanaCARES Programme to bolster the productive and export capacity of the private sector.
To this end, he said an economic enclave project with focus on providing support for the cultivation of up to 110,000 acres of land in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Savanna and Oti regions, is being pursued.
The initiative, Mr Ofori-Atta explained in his 2023 budget presentation to parliament on Thursday, 24 November 2022, “seeks to expand our production and productivity in rice, tomato, maize, vegetables and poultry” sectors.
The National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Programme (NEIP), the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) under the Ministry of Defence, and the National Service Secretariat are all working together to lead and coordinate it. It is being led and coordinated by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) (NSS).
In keeping with the private sector-led strategy, Mr. Ofori-Atta stated, “the initiative would engage interested private sector actors to expand agricultural production and processing in the Asutuare-Tsopoli economic enclave area based on a partnership structure.”
He added that “the areas obtained in the Ashanti, Central, Savanna, and Oti regions” will be treated similarly.
Mr. Ofori-Atta stated that in addition to the enclave project, the GhanaCARES program will continue to give catalytic support in 2023 by collaborating with DBG to provide money to interested and targeted farmers; support for the Ministry of Finance (MoFA) to adopt and implement the farmer registration database for the farmer input subsidy program to increase efficiency; support for the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization (MoCD) to establish a tech hub to improve youth knowledge of technology and innovation in partnership with the University of Ghana; assurance that the foundry will be operationalized under a sustainable private sector management framework; and provision of interest rate subsidies.
Source: newsthemegh.com