The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has charged the Ghana Incentive-based Risk-sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL) to increase funding to farmers, particularly those in the coconut industry.
Speaking at the launch of the 2nd International Coconut Festival, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Yaw Frimpong Addo reiterated his outfit’s support to the coconut sector.
“It is my wish that this coconut business festival will offer the opportunity for participants to deliberate on the following strategies among other issues through various presentations, seminars, workshops and panel discussions to identify key investment areas that will enable Ghana realise the full benefits of the coconut subsector”.
“These is very key to us and GIRSAL. You really need to mobilise resources especially for the farmer based organisations,” he urged.
The Deputy Minister also stated that in a bid to support the industrialisation agenda, the ministry has distributed about 23.9m coconut seedlings to farmers under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
The African Coconut Group and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority launched the 2nd edition of the International Coconut Festival.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Samuel Dentu, disclosed that coconut generated revenue of $11.44 million, while coconut oil raked in $7million in 2021.
This is 132% and 33% increase respectively from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has reiterated its commitment to ensuring that Ghana’s coconut industry realises the $2.8 billion revenue that could be generated from exports.
Samson Abankwa, Head of the Greater Accra Regional office of the Ministry of Trade and Industry representing the Sector Minister said “he’s been informed that coconut has the potential to generate $2.8 billion export revenue annually. Therefore it is the hope of the ministry that we continue to strengthen existing synergies and use every available opportunity and push through the promotion of coconut, especially now that we know that it is employing over 36,000 persons along the value chain”.
This year’s International Coconut Festival is themed “Repositioning Ghana’s Coconut Sector for Accelerated Industrialisation Agenda”.