Yaw Adu Poku, the chairman of the Ghana chapter of the Competitive African Rice Platform, claims that a "angel investor" has recently entered the local rice market to increase and promote local rice production.
He claimed that after making numerous requests and solicitations, he was successful in getting the Jospong Group to participate in the rice industry.
He said that the Jospong Group had already travelled to Thailand to investigate Ghana's struggles with domestic rice production.
In order to conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine the deficiencies in Ghana's rice output, the company last month funded the airfare for 33 Thai experts, according to Mr. Poku.
Since we now have an angel investor in the rice industry, next year's news will be completely different. I petitioned, begged, and begged on my knees until I managed to enlist the Jospong Group.
"This man did not simply come in; he also travelled to Thailand to learn why Ghana cannot produce rice. This month, he has brought in 33 Thai experts to reside in Ghana for the next year on his own dime.
On Newsfile on Saturday, December 24, he stated, "He wants them to complete a full cycle for us to determine where the holes are.
Mr. Poku is confident that by 2023, the narrative around the local rice industry will have changed.
Ghana became the 20th highest rice importer in the world in 2020 after spending $ 391 million on rice imports. In the same year, rice was listed as the third most popular import in the nation.
In the West African subregion, about nine million tonnes of rice were imported in 2021, amounting to a $3.4 billion import expenditure.
The government launched a programme in 2019 to promote regional rice and enhance its production.
The "Eat Ghana Rice" campaign is one of several programmes launched as part of a programme supported by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to improve the productionof rice in the country.
As the nation's imports of rice continue to soar, the programme does not appear to have had enough results. In order to support the domestic industry, several Ghanaians have urged the government to imitate Nigeria's 2015 ban on the importation of rice.
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