The Hemp Association of Ghana (HAG) has signed a deal with a Ghanaian-owned Cannabis business operator based in Portugal.
The deal will gross a staggering $ 56 million in five years from merely cultivating and exporting industrial hemp from a land size approximating 100 acres.
It will rake in around $2.8 million per harvest of HAG’s industrial hemp on the planned 100 acres.
Taxes to the Ghanaian government could gross over $ 10 million from just 100 acres of industrial hemp if the authorities evaluate the industrial potential of the plant taking the world by storm currently.
Soringa TM, the Ghanaian-owned company is a supply facilitator for a mid-tier Cannabis Start-up in Portugal and a big-time player in the Cannabis value chain in the United States of America (USA).
Representatives of HAG and Soringa signed the 20-page agreement which will be kick-started as soon as the Ghanaian Parliament causes the decriminalization and or reclassification of Industrial Hemp from the list of Psychotropic narcotics captured in the narcotic control laws of Ghana.
Demand for decriminalization of hemp
The American and Portuguese companies who do not want their names mentioned now because of the regulatory situation in Ghana.
“It is unfortunate that the Ghanaian government and lawmakers are dragging their feet in this burgeoning multi-billion dollars global industry-an industry that can exceed the value of crude oil in the nearest future,” says Raphael Ofori-Adeniran, the representative of Soringa TM.
“The point is this: There are Ghanaians living in countries that are eagerly lifting restrictions of Cannabis (especially industrial hemp which does not have any psychoactive effect) and these people are not waiting for the Ghanaian authorities to come off their stupor.
We are putting our best foot into the doorway of this growing industry. It will be unfortunate that that all the revenues that Ghana could have made from its citizens involved in the industry are made to stay outside Ghana and for foreign economies to enjoy the tax benefits,” Mr. Ofori-Adeniran noted.
On his part, Nana Kwaku Agyeman, the President of HAG said: “HAG insists that the inexperienced drafters of Ghana’s drug laws blindly categorized industrial hemp as part of the basket of narcotics despite extensive facts to the contrary. They simply copied the laws passed in the United States without questioning.”
Nana Agyemang said cannabis is a plant that has two strains namely Marijuana (Cannabis Indica), Industrial Hemp (Cannabis Sativa).While the former has the active ingredient THC that gives a “High”, the latter possess almost no THC at all and it has never been proven to cause any “High” as it cannot be smoked for any psychoactive effect.
Industrial use
Cannabis Sativa is used for over 50,000 industrial uses, including being used as a cheaper alternative to cotton, paper car dashboards, and building houses and for medicinal purposes.
According to HAG, now the United States, Europe, Asia and some African countries have realized the mistake they made in outlawing the plant that holds such astounding industrial and medicinal use and they are frantically lifting the ban on it.
Meanwhile, Ghana which depends heavily on aid is still debating on whether or not to relax restrictions on Cannabis, [particularly for export purposes.
The Global Cannabis market is estimated currently at over US$ 100 billion and estimate for the next five years peg the market size at a staggering $ 300 billion.
Source: Africafeeds.com
