President Akufo-Addo being briefed by Prof. Nyarko
President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday, October 11, 2019 visited the New York University
(NYU) Research Center for Technology and Economic Development (CTED) in Kumawu,
Ashanti Region.
The purpose of his
visit was to afford him the opportunity to learn about Commodity Exchange
Research.
President Akufo-Addo
was visibly elated as Prof. Yaw Nyarko, an economist at New York University,
walked him through the activities of the Center and Commodity Exchange
Research.
Initially, the Food
and Agriculture Minister was outside the hall where the President was being
taught, but as the President became much more interested in the activities of
the Center, he asked for the Agric Minister to join him.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto
upon entering the hall immediately identified with the NYU Research Center and
told the President that the project of CTED formed part of some of the highly
innovative projects the government, through the Food and Agriculture Ministry,
was exploring to promote and sustain food production and security.
“… Really nice! The
project is so important,” the President told Prof. Nyarko as he was being
walked through the operations of the Center and Commodity Exchange Research.
Curiously, the
President asked “are you creating these (drone technologies) things?”
The drones were on
display at the Center and caught the attention of the President.
The President was at
the Center with his team of ministers including Minister of Education, Matthew
Opoku Prempeh; Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay;
Roads and Highway Minister, Amoako-Atta; National Security Minister, Kan
Dapaah; and Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah.
CTED is working with
about 300 smallholder farmers nationwide.
Speaking to
journalists after seeing the President off, Prof. Nyarko said efforts were
being made to reach out to more farmers.
He stated that there
was the need to support farmers in Ghana and also attract more youth into the
agricultural space through the introduction and use of smart technologies.
Prof. Nyarko has long
studied the economic impact of commodities exchanges in Africa, looking at how
farmers can adopt new technologies like mobile phone apps for trading, for
growing their businesses and transforming agricultural value chains.
He is in partnership
with Chris Udry, one of the donors of CTED, currently conducting a national
survey that focuses on output markets in sub-Saharan Africa, using Ghana as the
principal study area.
The main hypothesis
is that smallholder farmers are acutely aware of incentives they face, and with
somewhat steady predictable output markets, provide the right incentives for
African farmers to make the economic decisions that many researchers find
unacceptable.
