Agricultural economist Peter Boamah Otokunor has issued a stark warning: Ghana’s fixation on GDP growth as a measure of economic success is masking a deepening crisis of poverty and stagnation.
Speaking on TV3’s KeyPoints, Otokunor argued that only a decisive pivot toward agriculture and manufacturing can rescue the nation from cycles of debt and dependency.
“A 6.3% GDP growth rate means nothing if families can’t afford tomatoes or poultry,” Otokunor said, slamming previous administrations for touting macroeconomic gains while neglecting sectors like crops, cocoa, and livestock that employ millions. He singled out reckless election-year spending as a key culprit, inflating growth figures without improving livelihoods. “You can’t eat GDP data,” he added, noting that debt restructuring had created fiscal space for transformative policies—but leaders squandered it.
The economist, who also owns a poultry farm, highlighted how predatory lending practices stifle grassroots entrepreneurship. “I faced a 39% interest rate to expand my farm—how can any business survive that?” he asked, linking the credit crunch to stagnant job creation and food import reliance. Ghana spends $2 billion annually importing food, including $400 million on tomatoes and $300 million on poultry—a figure Otokunor called “humiliating” for a nation with vast arable land.
His critique comes as President John Mahama’s “Agriculture for Economic Transformation” agenda gains traction, promising initiatives like the Feed Ghana Programme to boost local production. Otokunor praised the vision but warned execution must avoid past pitfalls. “We’ve seen policies like Planting for Food and Jobs fail from poor implementation. This time, we need accountability, not slogans.”
The call for an agricultural overhaul resonates in rural communities, where farmers grapple with erratic rainfall, rising fertilizer costs, and competition from smuggled goods. Yet Otokunor stressed solutions exist: investing in irrigation, reviving defunct processing factories, and enforcing tariffs on imports like frozen chicken could save jobs and foreign exchange.
With Treasury bill rates now declining, signaling potential relief, Otokunor urged policymakers to channel savings into sector-specific subsidies and low-interest loans for farmers. “Agriculture isn’t just a livelihood—it’s Ghana’s lifeline. Without it, no amount of debt restructuring will feed our people.”
As inflation and currency volatility persist, his message cuts through political noise: sustainable growth begins not in spreadsheets, but in the soil.
