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Germany re-focuses development partnership on food processing
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One major problem facing the country is in the inability to add value or processed its products, leading to post-harvest losses and paltry earning on such resources.
Several decades after independence the country continues to export natural and raw materials in their raw state, thus earning little on such products.
For example, cocoa, the main cash crop and a major foreign exchange earner, is largely continued to be exported in its raw form.
Particularly in the areas of agriculture, the lack of processing make a lot of food go waste during the periods of glut and create shortages during the lean season.
A visit to the tomato and water melon producing communities during the major season is a pity sight to behold.
The farmers out of frustration sell their produce at a cheaper price or allow them to rot on the farm.
Efforts by successive governments, for example, to create silos and storage facilities, to store food products such as grains, appear to have done little to address post-harvest-losses.
The 2020 Food Security Analysis conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicate that about 3.6 million (12 per cent of the population) are food insecure.
It said 2.8 million people, representing 78 per cent of the sampled population) lived in the rural area, while 0.8 million representing 22 per cent of the sample households lived in the rural areas.
Per, the report, food insecurity does not mean there is hunger in Ghana, but that people do not have food at the righty time, price and place with the required nutritional value.
It defined food insecurity as the lack of consistent access to enough food an active healthy life, and food security as the physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, by all people at all times to meet their dietary and food preference for an active and healthy life.
The survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service between November and December 2020, covered 65,309 households across all the districts of the 16 regions of the country.
As the report explained, food insecurity did not mean hunger in Ghana, but that people do not have food at the right time, prices and place.
Post-harvest losses could account for the food insecurity situation in the country since farmers do not have storage facilities, or processing plants and technology to preserve their food.
Advanced economies such as Switzerland, US, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany, for example, do not produce cocoa, but exports chocolate to the rest of the world.
This is because they have mastered in food processing and develop technology and machinery for food preservation.
While, the global chocolate industry is worth $150 billion, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, who a account 60 per cent of the global cocoa production, earn less than $6 billion in a year.
This is because, the two major cocoa producers, continue to export the cocoa beans in their raw form.
Thus, it is, encouraging that the new focus of Germany’s bilateral and economic co-operation relations with Ghana is going to focus on food processing.
In an interview with the German Ambassador to Ghana National Agricultural Capacity Building Roadshow organised by Agrihouse Foundation in Accra last week, Daniel Krull, said his country has been a great development partner of Ghana.
He said for the past 20 years, the German government had supported development projects to the tune of 700 million Euros.
He said the German government has approved 50 million Euros to, among others, support good governance projects and revenue collection.
Mr Krull said the Germany had supported agricultural production for the past 20 twenty years and now want to move from food production to support food processing.
According to him, food processing would help create jobs for the youth and address food insecurity in the country.
Mr Krull said Germany did not produce coffee but export coffee and coffee products to the global market.
“Germany is able to export coffee because one of our strength is technology and competence in food processing and we believe if Ghana want to participate more in food processing that has to do with building more industries here in Ghana,” he said.
He said Germany was supporting private enterprises in Ghana enterprises like in Ghana in Tomato Processing Plants, stressing this “is our main focus.”
Apart from supporting Tomato Processing Plants in Ghana, the German government is supporting to farmers to use solar-powered water pumps.
The German government and for that matter the German Embassy is commended for their efforts to refocus their development priority with Ghana to food processing.
Paying emphasis on food processing has become so important, now that Ghana is playing host to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Ghana can harness the benefits AfCFTA presents if is able to process its raw materials for exports and also to earn for value for its.
According to the World Bank, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement would create the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating.
It said the pact projects to connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) valued at US$3.4 trillion and has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty.
With the country’s arable lands, it could become the food basket for Africa.
This goal can be achieved if attention is given to value addition and food processing to help add value to the country’s food products to ensure their longer shelf life.
Thus under the government’s One District, One Factory initiative, it should support private sector investment on food processing to help add value to the country’s numerous food crops for export.
In this vein, incentives and tax holidays should be given to companies which intend to venture into food processing. Such incentives would encourage other investors to invest in food processing to address post-harvest losses and food insecurity in the country.
It is also suggested that government should develop policies and programmes aimed at supporting value addition.
In conclusion, we on this paper commends Germany for its continuous development assistance to the country and immense support to the private sector.
We also congratulate the new German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Krull and wish him a fruitful in Ghana and believe his service in Ghana would further deepen and cement the diplomatic and bilateral, and economic bond between the two countries.
Writer’s email: gbetomenyo81@gmail.com
(0246943864)
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has become the new leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after delegates approved a constitutional amendment making the party’s flagbearer its leader.
The amendment was approved on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at the NPP’s National Delegates Conference held at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
The decision makes Dr Bawumia the leader of the NPP as the party prepares for the 2028 general elections, having earlier been elected as its presidential candidate.
The change was contained in one of 14 constitutional amendments presented to delegates by the party’s Constitution Amendment Committee.
The amendments were approved through a voice vote, with delegates responding in favour of the motions.
The latest amendment reverses a provision approved at the party’s January 31, 2026 conference, which made the National Chairman the leader of the party at all material times.
The approved amendment provides for the flagbearer to assume the leadership of the party when the NPP wins an election and the flagbearer becomes President.
The amendment also reinstates the President as a member of the National Executive Committee when the party is in government.
The Chairman of the NPP Constitution Amendment Committee, Frank Davies, explained that the amendments were necessary to address gaps identified in the party’s previous constitutional review.
The constitutional amendments formed the first part of the conference before delegates proceeded to elect new national executives.
A total of 7,163 delegates from all 16 regions participated in the conference, with voting conducted at 31 polling stations for nine national executive positions.
The Electoral Commission supervised the elections and verified delegates.
Other approved amendments include changes to the election of Vice Chairpersons, allowing candidates to contest specific Vice Chairperson positions instead of being ranked according to the number of votes they receive.
Delegates approved the appointment of three additional Vice Chairpersons, the creation of Deputy Communications Officer positions and the elevation of the Information Technology Officer to an executive position.
Addressing delegates after the constitutional amendments and as the party prepared for the national executive elections, Dr Bawumia called for unity and peaceful voting.
He urged the 47 aspirants contesting nine national positions to accept the outcome of the elections and continue working together for the party.
“Let us vote in peace, accept the results in good faith and leave Kumasi as one family,” he told the delegates.
Dr Bawumia congratulated all the aspirants for putting themselves forward to serve the party and urged those who won to reach out to their fellow contestants.
He assured those who lost that the party would still need their experience and contribution.
The NPP flagbearer further reflected on the party’s reorganisation since the December 2024 general elections, saying the party had listened to its grassroots members and learnt lessons about its organisation, communication and engagement with supporters.
He noted that the party had elected its structures from the polling station to the regional level and had also begun preparations towards its next programme for government.
Dr Bawumia said his early election as the party’s presidential candidate had allowed him and the party to begin work on policy development ahead of the 2028 campaign.
He said various policy committees had been established and engagements with different groups and stakeholders were ongoing.
Turning to national issues, Dr Bawumia used his address to criticise the government over what he described as failures to fulfil several campaign promises.
He specifically questioned the progress of the NDC government’s proposed 24-hour economy, the women’s development bank, electricity tariffs, the cost of transportation and other economic challenges facing households and businesses.
On the economy, he defended the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, arguing that the programme introduced under the previous NPP administration had contributed to stability in the Ghanaian currency.
Dr Bawumia further criticised the government over the stalled implementation of projects including Agenda 111 and raised concerns about the management of the Free Senior High School programme.
He addressed recent drug seizures involving consignments traced to Ghana, calling for a bipartisan parliamentary committee to investigate how such shipments were able to leave the country.
On the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, he accused the government of failing to deliver on its promises to tackle the problem and restore polluted water bodies.
He criticised the government over promises relating to cocoa prices, teacher and nurse postings, the teacher licensure examination and payments to customers of collapsed financial institutions.
These claims formed part of Dr Bawumia’s political assessment of the NDC government’s performance and were presented by him as reasons why the NPP should return to government.
He accused the government of what he described as the “weaponization of state power” and alleged that different standards of justice were being applied to government supporters and opposition figures.
Dr Bawumia said the NPP would, if returned to power, pursue what he described as one standard of justice for all citizens regardless of political affiliation.
He ended his address by urging the incoming national executives to build a strong party organisation, focus on holding the government to account and communicate the party’s policies to Ghanaians.
The NPP’s new leadership structure and national executive team will now oversee the party’s reorganisation and preparations towards the 2028 general elections.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Newly elected National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus Glover, has pledged to work to ensure peace, unity and respect within the party as it prepares for the 2028 general elections.
Mr Glover said he would work to strengthen the party and help actualise the vision of its flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, becoming President of Ghana in 2028.
He made the remarks in his victory speech at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi after winning the NPP National Organiser position at the party’s National Delegates Conference on Saturday, October 3, 2026.
Mr Glover polled 2,964 votes to win the election, defeating his closest contender, Ali Maiga Halidu, who obtained 2,231 votes.
Emmanuel Korsi Bodja polled 145 votes in the contest.
Mr Glover thanked delegates for electing him and promised to work hard to justify the confidence they had placed in him.
“I will work very hard. What I’ll bring is peace, unity, respect, and that we use for governance,” he said.
He explained that peace, unity and respect were necessary for the party to effectively organise and prepare for the elections.
“If you are doing governance and you don’t bring peace and unity and respect, the work will be hard,” he added.
Mr Glover acknowledged the task ahead of the newly elected national executives, describing it as a major responsibility that would require commitment from members.
“The job is big. There’s a lot of work ahead of us. We need love. We need peace. We need unity,” he said.
He urged members of the NPP to remain united and work together beyond the internal elections.
According to him, his focus would be to contribute to the party’s efforts to win the 2028 general elections, with Dr Bawumia’s presidential bid forming a central part of that objective.
“Dr Bawumia has to become the President of this country. That’s the vision for NPP, that we have to work hard for Dr Bawumia to become the President of the Republic,” Mr Glover stated.
He said he was determined to use his new position to contribute to the development of the NPP and Ghana.
Mr Glover’s election forms part of the new national executive team elected by delegates at the conference to lead the affairs of the party.
The newly elected executives are expected to oversee the party’s reorganisation and strengthen its structures as the NPP prepares for the 2028 general elections.
By: Jacob Aggrey
