A new dawn for agribusiness sector and the export value chain  

By Chris KONEY

Players within the agricultural sector and export value chain have a lot to cheer about following President John Dramani Mahama’s appointment of Sylvester Adinam Mensah as Acting Chief Executive of the country’s leading policy and development bank, the Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM).

News of the appointment of the consummate finance professional and former senior banker, prominent for his expertise in public sector banking, fund management, strategic financial management and governance with a proven record of accomplishment of delivering innovative financial solutions was received with excitement across various sectors.

The Ghana Export-Import Bank Act 2016 (Act 911) was promulgated to establish the Ghana Export-Import Bank with a mandate to facilitate international trade, improve export competitiveness, enhance foreign exchange earnings and improve balance of trade. In addition, the bank is to play a pivotal role in Ghana’s quest for a feasible and sustainable export-led economy.

Under Mr. Mensah’s leadership, the bank’s core strategic direction is expected to focus on prioritising agribusiness and introducing carefully designed initiatives to bridge the export gap to foster Ghana’s greater participation in global export value chains, from small and medium-sized enterprises to larger corporations.

Over the years, agriculture has remained the major driver of Ghana’s economy and the primary way the majority of Ghanaians earn their living. As an agrarian economy, it has become important to focus on agribusiness in order to enhance the development of the value chain, and build the ecosystem to our advantage.

Agribusiness, as we are aware, examines the structure and organisation of the agricultural food sector as well as the entire value chain, extending from farm inputs through on-farm businesses, to processing, transportation, credit and marketing.

In addition, Agribusiness plays a crucial role in the world economy, responsible for producing, packaging, preserving and distributing food and other agricultural products to consumers and industries worldwide. For this reason, we cannot afford to neglect agribusiness as a priority for the country.

Low and medium income countries always battle with currency depreciation due to unfavourable balance of trade (BoT) which also serves as a major indicator of economic growth potential and an important part of the gross domestic product (GDP). To reduce our trade deficit will require a bold step to increase exports to earn more foreign currency from the goods and services exported.

In realising this, Ghanaian businesses are to be aided to leverage on innovation and technology to improve their processes to be able to compete favourably in the global marketplace.

This will ultimately lead to the building of local capacity, enormously contribute to Ghana’s industrialisation and export drive agenda. Without a doubt, these will certainly culminate into job creation and the introduction of special purpose initiatives targeting the youth and women to benefit from jobs to be created.

>>>the writer is a thought leader in Marketing Communications, Stakeholder Relationship Management Professional and International Cooperation Specialist. Over the last 15 years, he has made tremendous impact within Africa’s corporate communications and creative arts sectors. He can be reached at [email protected] / 233 20 854 1480

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