The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of B-BOVID, Issa Ouedraogo, says Ghana’s agriculture sector cannot see the needed growth, unless the supervisory Ministry provides protection, fairness and a level playground for actors in the field.
According to him, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), and the government as a whole, must ensure that local enterprises in the sector were protected, particularly from parasite companies and individuals that evade the system, under the disguise of foreign investors.
He said this while addressing participants at the Ghana Social Enterprise Forum organised in Accra last week Friday. The theme for the forum was: “Partnerships for sustainable development: social enterprises as catalysts for inclusive growth in Ghana.”
Mr. Ouedraogo postulated that due to certain flaws and weaknesses in the sector, people or entities with malicious agendas were able to capitalise on these to cheat the system.
He stated that these unscrupulous entities were able to buy their way through lawyers, state agencies, politicians, officialdom, as well as compromising some indigenous financial institutions to cut corners.
Per his observation of over the past 17 years in agribusiness, foreign direct investment into Ghana’s agricultural sector only appears good in the books, but in reality it lacked clarity, conformity, and integrity.
He pointed out that one of the areas where the rot was happening was local content, where investors formed partnership with indigenous industries, adding that the challenge in this context had been lack of due diligence on the part of institutions.
Mr. Ouedraogo argued that when these people come into the country to register a business as foreign investors, not much digging is done on their backgrounds, so they hire powerful lawyers and individuals in the banking sector to cover up their rot.
Sharing his experience, he indicated that B-BOVID, a company he built from scratch, went into partnership with a foreign investor, and that the latter had become a giant hornet destroying a peaceful bee hive.
“I am aware that the government is championing a course of attracting foreign direct investments into the country. However, this should not serve as a deterrent to indigenous companies from thriving. Foreign investors should not be given the upper hand over indigenous industries,” he urged.
Speaking with passion and emotions, he said B-BOVID is one the firms that has suffered such unfairness in the hands of institutions and individuals on the agriculture-value-chain.
The CEO added that “in my quest to promote peri-urban farming, as a social enterprise entrepreneur, I initiated in 2012, the Ghana Peri-urban Vegetables Value Chain Project (GPVVCP), which is a subsidiary project under GCAP. The project was a US$2.85 million grant from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through a Trust Fund Arrangement with the World Bank.
“My company was eliminated at the implementation stage in 2017. The only explanation given by the Ministry of Agriculture was the company did not attach interest to a project that it initiated.”
Mr. Ouedraogo blamed this elimination by false tactics situation on the frivolous partnership B-BOVID entered into that had become an albatross around his neck.
