Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah has agreed to the fact that the country should concentrate on improving upon local production rather than depending mostly on foreign imports of goods.

The Minister’s statement came days after the country saw an artificial shortage of food on the Ghanaian market after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced a partial lockdown in some part of Greater Kumasi and Greater Accra regions.

“If we had empowered local crop producers like those at Akumadan, the story would have been good and better for all of us by now. The virus has thought us to go for domestication”, Simon Osei-Mensah said.

According to him, the manner in which prices of foodstuffs shot up on the Ghanaian market all of a sudden indicates that, food security in the country is not protected hence the country may suffer in the near future if coronavirus does not vanish from the country in the shortest possible time.

Speaking in an interview on Kumasi-based radio, Hello FM monitored by MyNewsGH.com, Mr. Simon Osei Mensah noted, “when we produce locally, it will create employment, the youth will get jobs but what people forget is that the more you work the more you earn money. This will directly or indirectly increase our income capacity. These are some of the things that move a country because all developed countries concentrated on employment creation”.

“All we pray for is that, God delivers us from COVID-19 and after that, I think there should be a conscious effort and education for positive change for us to consume local products”, he concluded.