Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has expressed concern over the Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto not being held accountable for putting out false information on food production.
Sulemana Braimah says the Minister has consistently put out untruths about production capacity and general information in the sector.
“The Minister himself has consistently been putting out false information. He’s always been exposed for the wrong information that is put out there but it appears that it doesn’t deter him.
That is why we are where we are. We get the false information and the false hope that we are doing well in terms of our full production capacity and how much we need in our country to feed ourselves all for the sake of political propaganda,” he said in an interview with JoyNews.
Citing an example, Mr Braimah said that “if you take our soya beans production, the minister on February 3rd in a meeting with Tony Blair put out false information that before 2017 when this government came to power Ghana was producing less than a 100,000 metric tonnes which was false and then he went on to say that since coming to power soya bean production has increased to a quarter of a million tonne which again is false because the latest information by the ministry showed that Ghana was not doing more than 210, 000 metric tonnes as at 2020 “
His allegations come on the back of our yet to be aired latest Hotline documentary which reveals challenges poultry farmers are facing as a result of the shortage of soya beans on the market.
On the back of this, Mr Braimah wants the Agric Minister to present the real challenges production is facing in the country.
This is the latest in the series of accusations levelled at the Food and Agriculture Minister for peddling falsehood.
In November 2021, some traders in major markets in Accra accused Dr Akoto Afriyie of being untruthful when he said food prices are dropping.
The traders said the Minister lied because the prices of the commodities are rather increasing.
“The Minister is lying, is not true. If you want to know the truth he should enter the market you will see what I am talking about, the margarine of beans is 6 cedis, first was 3 cedis. with red oil, it is 16 cedis, the yellow one is 20 cedis but first it was 15, now it is very expensive,” a trader at Kwasia Dwaso in Accra told media on Monday, November 15.
