Ghana's bailout programme with the IMF has been blamed for the dwindling performance of the Agricultural industry in the past year.
In his 2016 Budget Statement in Parliament, the Minister of Finance Seth Terkper revealed that the Agric sector saw a mere 0.04 percent growth for the year 2015.
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Figures from the Budget reveal that the industry has been falling since 2013. In 2015 the sector recorded a growth rate of 5.7 4.6 0.04 percent growth rate respectively
Many analysts have said this is not good enough. Head of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Godfred Bokpin has laid the blame partly on the expenditure restrictions placed on governement by the IMF bailout.
In an exclusinve interview with Pulse Business, Dr. Bokpin said
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Meanwhile, a senior lecturer at the economics depatment of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, has buttressed the argument saying, An Economist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Mrs. Grace Ofori-Abebrese has attributed failure of the agric sector to tough international Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities.
According to her, a directive by the Washington-based lender to government against allocating funds to the agric sector is the cause of the sector’s abysmal performance.
Mrs. Grace Ofori-Abebrese.
Mrs. Ofori-Abebrese who is a Senior Lecturer at the KNUST’s Department of Economics was speaking Monday on Adom FM’s “Burning Issues” programme hosted by Afia Pokua.
Mrs. Grace Ofori-Abebrese recommended.
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The Economist also called on the government to work at improving the living standards of farmers across the country to encourage them to do more to enhance Ghana’s economy.
Mrs. Ofori-Abebrese emphasized that a lot of the youth want to enter into the agric sector but because the sector is not attractive and lucrative, the youth are not willing to venture into it.
