The Chief Government Officer (CEO) of the Asian African Consortium (AAC), Adelaide Araba Agyepong, has confused the necessity for an all arms on deck method to make the President’s imaginative and prescient of boosting rice manufacturing in Ghana a actuality.

She stated the imaginative and prescient of ending rice importation in Ghana goes past Jospong Group of Firms (JGC).

“It’s heartwarming to say that anyplace that we’ve been stakeholders each in Ghana and Thailand have proven nice help and enthusiasm for this mission,” she expressed.

Mrs. Siaw Agyepong was talking on the Thailand-Ghana Enterprise Convention on the Grand Fortune Resort, Bangkok Sunday, March 19, 2023.

The enterprise convention, which introduced collectively captains of Thailand rice business and Ghana’s delegation to Thailand, led by the Government Chairman of JGC, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, was on the theme: “Ghana-Thailand Enterprise Discussion board; Partnership for Sustainable Rice Manufacturing in Ghana.”

Members of the Ghana delegation included specialists and researchers in numerous fields drawn from the College of Ghana, Legon, College of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Expertise (KNUST), Middle for Scientific and Industrial Analysis-Crop Analysis Institute (CSIR-CRI), the Ghana Rice Farmers Affiliation, the Aggressive African Rice Platform, conventional rulers, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) and personal entrepreneurs with the deal with rice, fertilizer, maize, cassava and poultry in addition to executives of the Jospong Group of Firms (JGC).

Mrs. Siaw Agyepong indicated that from the inception of this mission (final year-2022) until now, quite a lot of efforts have been put in by her outfit in direction of actualising it.

“Key among the many actions achieved embody the next: the establishing of the Asian African Consortium, as an organization to drive the rice mission; the engagement of excessive authorities officers together with the President of the Republic of Ghana; assembly key sector ministers; key rice sector gamers and plenty of others,” she identified.

In opposition to this backdrop, Mrs. Siaw Agyepong stated forging strategic partnerships was elementary to the success of the mission.

She additionally used the chance to announce {that a} fully-furnished Nationwide Rice Workplace for the mission has been arrange in Accra.

“Three zonal workplaces in Koforidua, Kumasi and Tamale for the southern, center and northern belts respectively may even be prepared quickly for the mission. Satisfactory and appropriate lands have been acquired throughout the nation and prepared for cultivation,” she additional revealed.

She was upbeat that the go to to Thailand will assist concretise and agency up the plans for implementation “as quickly as we get again to Ghana.”

Ghana’s Deputy Minister for Meals and Agriculture (accountable for Crops), Mr. Yaw Addo Frimpong, inspired the traders within the Thailand rice worth chain to return and put money into Ghana.

He stated such an funding will mutually profit each Thailand and Ghana, including that the previous has the expertise and the expertise to help Ghana to grow to be self-sufficient in rice manufacturing.

Based on him, as a frontrunner in rice manufacturing, Thailand can help Ghana in its efforts to shut its rice consumption demand hole, and in addition produce in extra to export to international locations throughout the West African sub-region.

“Our [Ghana’s] consumption demand for rice is between 1.2 million and 1.4 million metric tonnes of rice each year and with this enormous hole, the Ghana authorities along with the small scale rice farmers are solely capable of do 600,000 metric tonnes,” he disclosed.

He defined that the enterprise discussion board was a continuation of the rice mission that was began some 5 months in the past.

That course of, he stated, was initiated via the instrumentality of the Government Chairman of the JGC, Dr. Siaw Agyepong.

Following the large hole within the demand for the consumption of rice in Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo tasked Ghanaians to go at any size to make sure self-sufficiency of rice within the nation, he stated.

Mr. Addo Frimpong, subsequently, counseled the initiative by the personal sector being spearheaded by the JGC to enter giant scale rice manufacturing in Ghana, including that the federal government of Ghana has given its full help.

He went on to emphasize that this mission will assist fill the rice consumption hole in Ghana.
He was additionally notably excited on the stage of enthusiasm proven within the Ghana-Thailand rice mission by stakeholders in Thailand.

“Other than that, the curiosity that has been proven by all stakeholders within the rice business in Thailand is sort of outstanding,” Mr. Addo Frimpong stated.

In a short comment, the Government Chairman of the JGC, Dr. Siaw Agyepong, added his voice to the decision by the deputy minister to captains within the Thailand rice sector to return and put money into Ghana.

He confused that Ghana was a peaceable and secure haven to do enterprise, assuring them that their investments shall be protected.

“I’m inviting you to a affluent nation; a peaceable nation; a frontrunner within the West African Sub-region, and; a frontrunner in the entire of Africa, particularly within the space of peace and stability,” Dr. Siaw Agyepong assured.