Ghana spent $1.1 billion alone on rice importation last year, according to statistics available to the country’s Trade ministry.
Deputy Trade Minister Robert Ahomka Lindsay who revealed this says “importation of rice takes 82% of all imports into the country”.
He was speaking at the Ghana-Vietnam trade and investment promotion forum organized by the Ghana Chamber of Commerce in Accra.
Mr Ahomka Lindsays said the government’s “focus and direction is on industrial transformation thus transforming our economy, the same transformation Vietnam went through some years ago led by its SME,”
“We can partner with Vietnam and by the same or similar model, Ghana’s economy will also become the African tiger” he added.
The minister said Ghana is hoping to tap into the expertise of Vietnam which has managed to move from being a huge importer of rice to one of the largest exporter of rice in the world.
Ghana last year recorded a trade surplus of $52.3 million with a total exports value of $320.6 million.
Source: Africafeeds.com
