Agriculture Can Generate Enough Revenue To Finance Ghana’s Debts – Afriyie Akoto

Former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said agriculture has the potential to generate enough revenue to help Ghana in debt restructuring.

He believes the agricultural sector, when well invested in can also push the government’s industrialization agenda forward.

In an interview with Daily Graphic, Dr. Akoto said “…All I am saying is that if properly invested in, agriculture holds the potential to generate enough local revenue and foreign exchange to finance our industrialisation agenda and all our debts.”

He stated that Ghana can generate a lot of revenue from tropical plants such as rubber, oil palm, and coconut among others when exported.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s public debt stock went to GH¢575.7 billion, the November 2022 Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data has revealed.

This is equivalent to 93.5% as of November 2022 of the Gross Domestic Product and is in sharp contrast to the projected 104.6% of debt to GDP ratio in 2022 by the World Bank.

Based on the data of the central bank, the country’s domestic debt still stands at GH¢194.7 billion at the end of December 2022, representing 31.6% of GDP.

The external component of the country’s public debt shot up to GH¢382.7 billion in November 2022, equivalent to 62.1% of GDP.

This was from $28.4 billion (GH¢271.7 billion) in September 2022 and $28.3 billion in December 2021.

The government is currently facing serious liquidity challenges and is unable to service its debts.