‘I delivered successfully as agric minister’ – Dr Afriyie Akoto

Former Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has asked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ghanaians to consider his successes in the sector and make him the nation’s next leader.

He said that, coupled with his achievements, he is committed to the nation’s course while out of office and therefore seeks to front-run the ruling government backed by his experience and competency.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who was speaking on the Anopa Bofo morning show on Angel FM/TV as part of his campaign to be elected flagbearer of the NPP, said he has won the trust of many Ghanaians, dominated by farmers, with his track record in the agriculture field.

The agricultural economist is seeking to lead his party in the 2024 presidential election, as he dreams of using the agricultural sector to turn around the fortunes of Ghana and permanently eliminate the syndrome of going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) whenever there is distress in the economy.

“I’m defending my records as the Minister for Food and Agriculture who has been extremely successful and pleading on Ghanaians to add the rest on me [by way of voting for me] the way I managed the Agric sector.

“Look, I am going on my record; I’m interested, proud of my record, I know I delivered, and the people of Ghana, at least the 3.1 million farmers, trust me because whenever I go around and have an encounter with them, their words for me encourage me a lot, which attests to the fact that they appreciated my handwriting on everything I did,” Dr. Akoto said on the show Wednesday, March 22, 2023, co-hosted by Kwamina Sam Biney and Nana Yaa Brefo.

Underscoring a few among some of his track records, he indicated that when he assumed office, he ensured that 4,400 agriculture extension officers were put on post after he discovered that 80 percent of some 1,450 already deployed were on the eve of their retirement.

In addition, he also mentioned that through his intervention, President Akufo-Addo disbursed motorcycles to these Agricultural Extension Officers to aid in the performance of their core mandate to foster the development of the Ghanaian economy.

These interventions, he said, helped solve the issues of unemployment among graduates who had graduated annually from the various Agriculture Training Colleges in the country and had become a burden to their parents.

Against this background, Dr. Akoto is confident that the grassroots, especially farmers across the country whose trust he has won, will empower him to win the NPP’s flagbearer race and lead them to victory in December 2024.