Business News of Sunday, 24 November 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Let's see Akufo-Addo and his appointees eating Ghana rice - Nii Kpakpo admonishes

Private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo Private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo

Private legal Practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo has stated that Ghanaians will massively patronise made-in-Ghana rice only if they see President Akufo-Addo, together with his appointees having their share of the local rice as delicacies.

Aside the president and his ministers eating made-in-Ghana rice, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo admonished that there should be a national directive that all hotels operating in the country must use homemade rice for their menu in a bid to promote the country.

He also advised that the Education Ministry should enroll such a policy into its sector by informing school feeding caterers to feed the children with locally produced rice.

Speaking on CitiTv's Big Issue Saturday, the legal practitioner said “if you go to Nigeria now, all the hotels use the homemade rice for their stuff. It just takes one policy direction from the Education Minister that all schools must use Ghana rice".

This initiative, Mr Addo believes, will urge Ghanaians to have a change in attitude towards purchasing Ghana rice for consumption.

"Let the Minister come out with a policy direction that all the rice you have, all you need to do is to give it to Ghana Buffer and you’ll be paid. Let’s see evidence of the payment… let this be a drive on the scale of the anti-mining galamsey operations that we did and I’m sure that within one year you’ll see the change in attitude”.

He further added that if there are actions taken to ban the importation of rice into the country which costs the state over 1.2 billion dollars, it would force banks and other stakeholders who finance these imported ones to invest in the locally manufactured produce.

He, however, called on Ghanaians to have a change in attitude by purchasing the locally manufactured Ghanaian rice regardless of the price, to support local farmers.