Captain Smart, host of the Onua FM and Onua TV Morning Show, has attacked the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, claiming that the man sleeps like a goat during international conferences, snoring loudly, just to wake up and announce that food prices are stable.
Captain Smart, who believes food costs have risen, disputed with the Minister’s claim that there has been no increase in food prices in the country, claiming that a simple market survey would have informed him.
Also, Recent data from the Ghana Statiscal Service indicated that the increasing cost of foodstuff, among others, pushed the rate of inflation for the month of above single digit. The data indicated that Cereals and cereal products (15.5%) registered higher inflation rates.
The Agric Minister had said statistics compiled by his outfit do not show a spike in the prices of food.
“That is the wrong perception. The statistics that we compiled in this Ministry do not support that,” said the Minister during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed members of the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR).
The Agric Minister explained that a drought in the Southern part of the country had led to an increment in the price of specific foodstuff such as maize in Ghana but overall prices are stable.
He explained that the increment in the price of maize thus affected the production of the cereal crop and other foodstuff this year.
“This is our fifth year of Planting for food and jobs. Nobody complained about reducing the size of kenkey until this year because there was a drought this year in the Southern part… that affected supplies”
The Minister also insisted that the government’s flagship agricultural programme, Planting for Food and Jobs has so far been successful.
“The Planting for Food and Jobs is very much alive and it is going to carry on. It is maturing; more and more farmers are benefitting.
Reacting to this, Captain Smart said Ghana’s Agric Minister “attends conferences and he sleeps ‘hatiiiii’ like a baby snoring ‘horrhorr’ like a goat. He wakes up and announces the food prices cannot go up!” The Onua journalist said.
He added: “If no one will say, I will say it! We have to get serious in this country.
