The Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) through the support of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have implemented a project which seeks to operate the Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F) in Ghana.
As part of the project, 15 agribusinesses in Ghana were profiled and would be assisted to explore possibilities of linking these businesses to various forms of support that would enhance their operations.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu, said that Agribusiness financing schemes must be accessible to all farmer-based organizations to enable them to make significant contributions to Africa’s agriculture and food systems sector.
He urged the profiled agribusinesses to make good use of the opportunity presented to upscale production, hence creating employment.
“This great opportunity would help to expand my business. The main focus of this business is to meet the demands from the European market for dried fruits and I think the right time has come”, the CEO of Groital Company, one of the beneficiaries, Mr. Joshua Ayinbora responded.
Speaking to Agric Today, Mr. Ayinbora said Groital is not able to exploit the opportunities received from Europe for meeting the demand of the dry fruits.
He commended the partners for the great opportunity and assured of high-quality products with value addition to lifting the image of the country on the international market.
The National Coordinator of ECASARD King-David Amoah underscored the significance of the partnership to the smallholder farmers. According to him, lack of storage facility, and transporting the produce from the farm to the market are the major challenges facing smallholder farmers.
“Our smallholder farmers work in vain, after going through these toils to produce and harvest, they do not have any storage facility to store their produce neither do they get trucks to convey the farm produce to the market for sale and these compel them to sell their produce at a lower price or left them to rot on the farm”, he bemoaned.
Partnering with investors would solve fractional if not all the problems of the smallholder farmers in respect to good agricultural practices, providing storage facilities, and transporting the farm produce to the market.
About Private Enterprise Federation (PEF).
The Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) is the apex business council for the private sector in Ghana that seeks to promote the creation of an enabling business environment for private businesses.
The Federation solicits for partnership and explored other investment opportunities to support businesses that are profiled.
In attendance at the program were United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana, ECOBANK Ghana, Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) E-Darkey and Associate, Groital Company, Horti Consult, Thrive Enterprise, AB Precision, Okala Farms and Food processing, Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (ECASARD).
