The President of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu, has indicated that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is an opportunity for the country’s private sector.

According to him, it especially bodes well for the sector in the area of agriculture and food production. He revealed that Russia’s ban on Ukrainian wheat exports amidst the war is a perfect opportunity for the local private industry to step in and provide an alternative solution to satisfy the demand.

Mr Bonsu noted that instead of relying on wheat imports, local bakeries could switch to locally produced sorghum, corn, or cassava flour for their baking needs.

“The local private sector is hurting, and this Ukraine-Russian war is an opportunity for the local private sector. Why? Basically, because everybody is lamenting on the curtailment of wheat and others, but we have various grains that can substitute for the wheat. When I was the CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation for one year, our Christmas hampers were made up of bread, cookies and all the baking stuff from sorghum, soybean, cassava and corn, and they tasted exactly the same.”
Nana Osei Bonsu

The PEF President highlighted that instead of “looking at what is not coming in”, this is an opportunity for the government to make a policy that every baking product in Ghana must have a percentage of the local grains. He explained that once it is done, everybody is “going to shift and it’s going to create opportunities” for the bakers and farmers.

“These are tools that the government has to use instead of us sitting around and saying, oh this doesn’t come in so we’re not going to be able to do that.”
Nana Osei Bonsu

AGI emphasizes need for review of benchmark value policy

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industry, Seth Twum Akwaboah, called for a review of the Benchmark Value Discount Policy. He expressed that the introduction of the Benchmark Value has been detrimental to the growth and development of the local manufacturing industry leading to a contraction of the local economy.

Mr Akwaboah explained that while the Benchmark Value has provided a major boost to the imports industry, it has dealt a major blow to the local manufacturing industry.

“Capacity doesn’t change overnight because capacity includes fixed cost and variable cost. In the short run you can change all these factors but in the short term you cannot change fixed cost. So, what happens is that you need to create conditions, you need to create market opportunities for the capacity to increase. If you want to wait for capacity to increase, capacity doesn’t increase in vacuum, it increases to fill a market need.”
Seth Twum Akwaboah

The AGI boss emphasized that if opportunities are not created for the market to thrive, businesses cannot really step up to the plate and increase capacity. He revealed that “installed capacity I believe is enough to produce so much” products.

“So, benchmark value reduction, the review is very important because when you review it, what you do is that you create fairness in the marketplace and when that fairness is created then you’re encouraging the productive sector to put in more investment, to put in more resources and then they can create the opportunity to fill the market.”
Seth Twum Akwaboah