An Economist, Patrick Asuming, has questioned the purported effectiveness of the Akufo-Addo administration’s flagship programmes like the Planting for Food and Jobs amid the current increase in the cost of living in Ghana.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Citi FM/Citi TV, Dr. Asuming said the government needed to confront the flaws in these programmes.
“We have to admit that the flagship programmes that were supposed to address the issues with the currency and the issue with overdependence on imports and would have mitigated the impact of the current external programmes haven’t worked as they should have worked,” he said.
Dr. Asuming singled out the lack of outcomes in the agriculture sector as an example.
Ghana is currently contending with the highest inflation since 2009.
The Ghana Statistical Service pegged inflation at 23.6 percent and said it was mainly driven by food, which accounts for 50% of inflation in the last month.
Cereal products have gone up by 31.5 percent, while live Animals and Meat have gone up by 28.1 percent despite policies like Planting for Food and Jobs and Rearing for Food and Jobs.
“When you have done this [Planting for Food and Jobs] for five years, and you are still exporting grains, you can’t have One Village, One Dam for several years and in one season when the rainfall pattern shifts a little, farmers are complaining, and we are seeing the effects,” Dr. Asuming said.
He thus urged the government to honestly evaluate the outcome of the flagship programmes he cited.
“We need to go back and fix the problems with the flagship problems and stop pretending that they are working well. And when we do that, we will start getting a handle on the longer-term things that are driving current inflation.”
