Cut down importation to save the cedi – Mahama tells Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has counselled the ruling government to cut down on importation of goods to save the depreciating Ghana cedi and redeem the economy. As a substitute, the 2020 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), suggested the use of local substitutes and a return to “Operation Feed yourself”. He opined that the country does enormous damage to the Ghanaian cedi and economy, when billions of dollars are spent to import rice, sugar, tomato products, frozen fish, meat products vegetable cooking oils among others. Delivering a lecture at the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) on the theme: “Building the Ghana we want”, he preached the “Operation Feed yourself” gospel of General Acheampong to the ruling NPP government. General Acheampong’s “Operation Feed yourself” and “Operation feed your Industries” programmes yielded massive results during the period from 1972 through to 1976″, Mahama said. Lamenting that Ghana spends $3 billion yearly on imports, John Mahama said “restriction of importation of some of these products, side-by-side with increased local production, is a realistic proposition that we need to begin to consider.” Again Mahama stressed “prioritization and strategic investment in private commercial large-scale production of these commodities. We cannot sustain progress in agricultural production based on only support for small-scale producers.” He also called on the government to support large-scale commercial agricultural production to achieve food self-sufficiency with a focus on the entire value chain from production to processing and marketing.