In Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah's response to some questions posed to him about Ghana's Economy by Umaru Sanda Amadu on July 5^th, 2022, on Citi TV, he was observed to have played some very "unhealthy internal politics" with our Economic Management Team (EMT), of which, we believe to have been under the basis and influence of political expediency and profiteering. 

It is worthy of note that Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah is the immediate past Member of Parliament (MP) for the New Juaben Constituency and Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana (2017 - 2020).

Whiles eulogizing the Head of the EMT for opting for the IMF program, Dr. Assibey Yeboah disingenuously demeaned the wonderful impact that the Agric Sector, specifically the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme (PFJ) has had on our economy.

Since Dr Assibey Yeboah is a politician with some serious economics background, we, the Friends of Dr. Akoto (FODA) would want to use scientific facts and data to prove to him that he got it all wrong with his "skewed" opinionated view against the Agric Ministry.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has been the Minister in charge of Food and Agriculture since 2017 to date and has chalked many enviable achievements in that Sector. A few of these achievements are as follows;

 

1. Ghana achieved the highest ever Cocoa production in history in a single season (1,030,000 metric tonnes) in July 2021

 

1. According to the data by the Ghana Statistical Service, for the fourth (4th) quarter, the economy of Ghana was hugely boosted by the strong growth in the Agric and Service Sectors with *Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)* recording the highest growth among all the Sectors and Ministries.

The Planting for Food and Jobs Programme alone, basically the Crop sub-sector, recorded the highest growth rate of 8.9 (Bloomberg. com).

It is also trite knowledge that the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme alone has given this government over 50 Billion Ghana Cedis as against the almost 3 billion Cedis invested in the Programme.

III. Ghana is not part of the list of countries in the world with worsening Food Insecurity, Nigeria and others are part, kind courtesy Planting for Food and Jobs. (https://nairametrics. com/2022/04/11/a-bigger-food-crisis-is-looming-in-Africa/)

According to the March 2022 analysis of the Cadre harmonize, over 38.3 million people from different countries were to experience food and nutrition crises between June and August, an increase of 40.2% from 27.3 million during the same period in 2021. Based on the projections for June-August 2022, the projected number of people in phases 3 to 5 in the most affected countries is 19.5 million in Nigeria, 3.5 million in Burkina Faso, 4.4 million in Niger, 2 million in Chad, and 1.8 million in Mali. Thank God, Ghana is not part of this very worrying situation, kind courtesy of the sterling performance of our Agric Ministry.

1. Under the able leadership of Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Ghana is currently the 2nd largest producer of tomatoes in West Africa.

Now, let us analyze the above successes chalked with respect to the general standard of living.

What then could be the main cause of high food prices in our city markets that could make a Ph.D. holder who has even served in this government before and knows the critical roles statistics and data play in passing certain comments about a national economy. The statistics below give a clue:

Ghana's annual inflation rate accelerated for the eleventh consecutive month to 23.6% in April of 2022, from 19.4% in March and currently doing some 27.0% as of May 2022. That was the highest inflation rate ever since 2004.

Food price growth quickened to 26.6% from 22.4% in March.

Also, non-food inflation climbed to 21.3% from 17.0% in the same month, led by *higher prices of transportation (33.5%), housing equipment and maintenance (28.5%), and housing and utilities (25.0%). On a monthly basis, Consumer Price Index rose by 5.1%. (Source: Ghana Statistical Service)

With regards to the worst ever inflation rate since 2002, the appreciation in inflation was visibly influenced by the high cost of transportation (33.5%) then followed by household equipment and maintenance (28.5%), and not Food-Price inflation of 26.6%.

As a matter of fact, the monthly food inflation we even see is purely caused by high fuel and transportation costs but not a shortage of food itself.

So, for Dr. Assibey Yeboah to eulogize the Head of the Economic Management Team in these hard times of the Cedi being the worst currency in Africa and with the above economic statistics, but would go ahead to talk ill of the very Ministry that is holding the current economic pillars of this country regardless of the global economic crisis, could only be described as the highest order of intellectual dishonesty and biased myopic analysis of the Country's Agric Sector.

What is Dr. Assibey Yeboah trying to prove? Did the former legislator actually check his facts and records about the Agric Ministry before granting that interview on Citi TV?

Was Dr. Assibey-Yeboah trying to tell Ghanaians that it was the Agric Ministry that took us to the IMF? 

Or was he indirectly telling us that the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme is responsible for the high cost in fuel prices we are currently experiencing?

Maybe, he was indirectly trying to blame the Agric Ministry for the weakness of our currency (Cedi) on the international market.

The economic downturn has affected everything in this country, yet, Ghana remains food secure thanks to Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto and his Agric Ministry.

We are not by this, saying the Agric Ministry cannot be criticized just because it is performing awesomely very well. What we are saying is that such criticisms must be based on scientific facts and analysis.

Of course, we know which of the potential presidential candidates, Dr. Assibey Yeboah is rooting for, of and we do not hold any grudge against that. Nevertheless, we are admonishing him to play this game with facts and tact if he really means well for our Party.

We have general elections to win and political power to maintain. So let us do decent and strategic campaigns to elect the most competent candidate for the Party, because, the upcoming presidential contest would be a battle of competence and not a battle of frivolity. So let us allow Competence as the basic criteria for the elections to lead.

...............Signed..............

Friends of Dr. Akoto (FODA)

Chairman Opambour 

0248005516

Mr. Lambert 

0248539905

MC Yaw Preko

0540545630

Mr. Philip Amoah

0554884535

Mrs Adiepena

0244570177

Mr. Owoahene

0244078968