The General Secretary of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Nana Yaa Jantuah, has challenged the government to provide evidence demonstrating the local economy's capacity to respond to market demand before imposing restrictions on the importation of essential goods.
This follows the recent submission of a bill by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to parliament, seeking to limit the importation of some essential items.
The ministry argues that the importation of these essential goods places a financial burden on the state and hinders the growth of the local economy.
However, Nana Yaa Jantuah, speaking on TV3 on Thursday, November 23, 2023, raised questions about the proposed bill.
She urged the government not to rush into implementing the proposed bill, emphasizing the need for a well-thought-out plan.
“If you look at everything that we are importing, and consuming, if you put everything together in one budget, which one are we consuming more? We need to do the analysis, the data should be available.
“If they are saying these items are being consumed, to what level, as against the imported and the Ghanaian ones? What is the capacity of local industry as compared to foreign ones? Can the local industry like Ekumfi take out the likes of Ceres and all the other foreign ones? And pricing; it is key,” she stated.
She stressed the need for the government to be measured in how it goes about this intervention.
“So you don't just get up one day and decide that you are going to have a bill that is going to restrict the importation of goods. That is very populist. You should come with a plan first. It's the same way they treated E-Levy, Free SHS, going to IMF and others. You see, you are dealing with Ghanaians: give us evidence that it can be done. Give us the evidence before we as a country start getting angry,” she added.
According to the CPP General Secretary, the bill, in its current form, should be withdrawn and re-examined.
Nana Yaa Jantuah also called for extensive consultations with relevant stakeholders, expressing concerns about the rushed nature of the proposal.
“It is rushed, because it is coming from nowhere. Did they have any meeting with GUTA? What is the timeline? They said about 60% of the rice we eat in Ghana is imported, and rice is really eaten in Ghana. In most restaurants, there is rice. Most of our foods are rice made: waakye, rice balls, jollof, among others. You see that these foods on our menu alone are rice. So, we eat rice throughout and if 60% is imported, it is a lot.
“All these while what have we been doing? Is our buffer stock working? If we are able to go through this, we will already have food inflation driving general inflation. The prices of food are high. We need to look at it holistically," she stressed.
Regarding the certification process of persons who will be given the certification to import, Nana Yaa Jantuah also raised questions, questioning, for instance, what the motivation to reject people would be based on.
"Because this committee is a discretionary committee, where the minister will decide who becomes qualified to get a license, what will let the minister refuse somebody a license? Is there a threshold that we allow - maybe 50 or 20 importers of rice? What are the modalities? These questions underscore the need for clarity on the proposed measures,” she added.
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General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Jantuah