News:
Finance Minister
November 24, 2022
Government is to support the private sector, through partnerships with existing and prospective businesses to expand, rehabilitate and establish manufacturing plants targeted at producing selected produce for the Ghanaian market.
The measure according to the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is aimed at developing local capacity for production to help achieve government’s import substitution drive to ensure product that the country has the capacity to produce are produced here.
The Finance Minister who disclosed this when he presented the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government in parliament on Thursday, 24th November, 2023 said the country’s heavy dependence on imports places tremendous pressure on the Cedi, creating an unfavourable balance of payments position.
“On average, Ghana’s import bill exceeds US$10 billion annually and is accounted for by a diverse range of items that include iron, steel, aluminum, sugar, rice, fish, poultry, palm oil, cement, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, Toilet roll, toothpick, fruit juices, etc”.
He disclosed that the country currently has the capacity to locally produce items that account for about 45 percent of the value of our annual imports including include rice, fish, sugar, poultry, cement, pharmaceuticals, jute bags, computers, among others.
Ghanamps.com