The General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union, Edward Karaweh, has called on the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government to urge the private sector, especially the banks, to rethink their position of limiting support to the agricultural sector because of its perceived high risk.

According to Mr Karaweh, banks are reluctant to lend to the agricultural sector because they believe the risk factor is overwhelming.

His comment comes on the back of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s pledge that his government would modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, and achieve food security in the next four years.

Speaking to Class News, Mr Kareweh said: “Unlike other sectors of the economy, it is very difficult for players within the agricultural sector, particularly producers, to be able to access credit or capital to invest because the banks and the financial institutions are refusing to lend to producers of agriculture claiming that the sector is a high-risk area. Government, however, has been supporting the sector through diverse policies and programmes but that cannot be sufficient and, indeed, it is not sufficient.

“What we have been asking for is that government should come out with a policy that will, to a large extent, induce the financial sector to lend to agriculture and one of the policies we are saying they should take, which is supposed to be decisive, is that: all banks must allocate a percentage of their loan portfolio to agriculture as a policy requirement.”