Agriculture minister should stop insulting Ghanaians–Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo
Opinion

Agriculture minister should stop insulting Ghanaians–Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo

One of the big disservices many of us did to Ghana was our failure to interrogate the infeasible slogans that were being peddled by this government while in opposition. Today, not only have many of these slogans failed to generate the productivity and economic drive required to grow our economy, they have become a national drain and illegal outlets through which government appointees loot the state. We should not and will not repeat that mistake. One person still living in the world of slogans is the Agriculture Minister. One would have thought that his persistent gaffing, coupled with his performance during his vetting would have alerted him to the need for him to study and understand the sector he is leading but no. This is a Minister who said because of his policies, northerners were now building blockhouses. Not only was this palpable falsehood. It is obvious he didn’t know northern Ghana well before he was made Minister. When farmers were struggling to find seed and fertilizers because of the racketeering in the subsidy system that he failed to notice and tackle, the Minister went about claiming subsided fertilizer was everywhere. Today he claims to have received awards for tackling food security in Ghana. What a shame! Of course, from his high horse, it is not possible for him to see the suffering of the people and the anguish of farmers. It is obvious the Minister failed to understand, maybe deliberate, that there are several dimensions to food security (availability, access and utilization, for want of time). We are in March, and I can tell you for a fact that the food supply situation in Northern Ghana is under extreme stress. In the markets, not only are food prices extremely high, evidence of food shortage is palpable because the Minister failed to manage the buffer stock systems that were put in place by our visionary President Mahama, to mop up excess supply during the harvest season and ensure post-harvest losses were cut to the minimum while stabilizing prices for farmers. While food was going to waste because our storage and processing systems under the buffer stock were deteriorating under this Minister’s watch, he was going around claiming food is everywhere. Mr. Minister, at that time, the time you were taking your victory lap, farmers were crying and committing suicide. On the dimension of food availability, a generous Professor would rate D-. Access to food is a serious problem even for the employed and middle class in Ghana today. While all Ghanaians are increasingly spending a higher proportion of their incomes on food, those living on the periphery have gone into destitution, with many begging for food. The litmus test for improving food access is when people progressively spend less proportion of their income on food. There is no Ghanaian today who has reached this point, except those of you who return home with several “Ghana Must Go” bags of money in your car booths. On food access, you score a terrible F. I will not waste my readers’ time on the third dimension, utilization. So because the experts would tell you, and I am one, that when you struggle with the first two, it is unlikely you would achieve the third. Another F. My final advice is that you check the direction of the cars loaded with food. Maybe use the google earth app on your android phone and it would clearly tell you those food trucks are headed for Ghana. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: +2335555568093

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Adongo backs Bawumia’s drive to digitise Ghana’s economy
Opinion

Adongo backs Bawumia’s drive to digitise Ghana’s economy

A Lecturer with the University for Development Studies, Dr. Michael Adongo has backed the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s digital development agenda for the country. Dr. Adongo maintained that developed economies across the globe have taken advantage of the many opportunities that exist in the area of Information Communication and Technology (ICT). He said the technologically driven agenda has birthed Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has been very helpful to developed economies. The Development Economist suggested that adopting digitalization and its attendant and technologies helps in revenue generation and collection, the transformation of business processes and serves as a source of employment and wealth creation. “… [the digitalization has created] economic advancement and also [seen to the] creation of job opportunities across sectors. Technology has greatly transformed business transactions. It creates potentials for viewers in Africa and Asia,” he said. Dr. Michael Adongo made these known when he spoke on A1radio on the back of comments made by the Vice President about the digital economy at the Ashesi University in the Greater Accra Region. Dr. Adongo mentioned that for countries that decide not to invest in the digitalization of their economy, they would continue to lag behind their peers who do. “Others that could not give way for this development find it difficult. Largely, you are left behind because you have not made the right digital approach. An example is the passport, when one is with an electronic passport at the airport it is easier but with a paper passport [he or she] joins a lengthy queue which wastes precious time,” he explained. —DGNonline Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093

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