The report that Ghana is turning to an internationally certified agro-processing facility in Dubai to add value to its cocoa and coffee and export them to the global market without hindrance is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana is turning to an internationally certified agro-processing facility in Dubai to add value to its cocoa and coffee and export them to the global market without hindrance
This will ensure that the country obtains more value from both commodities, about 10 times more than what it currently earns.
Ghana can rake in over $10 billion, compared to the current $2.5 billion it earns from its raw commodity export.
The Dubai Agric Commodities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a United States (USA) Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) certification which enables products from its processing facilities to enter the US and European markets without hindrance.
It is a state institution that adds value to the raw commodities to the exporting country’s specifications and finds markets for the finished products globally.
Currently, Ghana’s chocolate products do not have the USA FDA certification, making cocoa products from the country difficult to enter the US and European markets, except the raw commodity, which commands very low prices, compared to finished products.
The Agric Commodities route is, therefore, a strategy to access the global market without hindrances.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has begun discussions with the institution, culminating in the sector Minister’s recent visit to the facility in Dubai.
The newspaper says that Ghana has pledged its continuous commitment to the Commonwealth by fervently upholding its core values.
“We reaffirm our belief in this unique organisation as a powerful influence for good in the world,” a message from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, to commemorate Commonwealth Day yesterday said.
Ghana joined member countries of the Commonwealth in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, America, Europe and the Pacific to commemorate the day.
Observed on March 14, every year, the day provides an opportunity for member countries to celebrate the friendship, unity and achievements of the Commonwealth.
This year’s event was on the theme: “Delivering a Common Future”.
Ms Botchwey expressed Ghana’s commitment to work with other member states to ensure a more equal and hopeful future for the Commonwealth and the world.
She explained that the Commonwealth, also known as the “Family of Nations”, had stood the test of time and had, among others, amplified the voice of small and vulnerable states, championed the promotion of justice and human rights and upheld the rule of law.
The minister said the Commonwealth had also empowered women, girls and the youth, provided electoral assistance for countries and advocated the protection of the environment in terms of the blue economy through its Blue Charter and climate change.
The Graphic also reports that the representatives of five Anglophone countries are meeting in Accra to discuss how to sustain the gains of a United Nations project on building a resilient educational system.
The project was initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Ghana have been selected to implement it.
The COVID-19-occasioned project is being implemented in partnership with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a fund focused on bringing quality education to children in lower-income countries.
It has been dubbed the UNESCO-GPE Anglophone West Africa COVID-19 Education Response Project.
The project is aimed at supporting the targeted English-speaking West African countries through interventions such as adaptation, scaling and rapidly deploying a regional platform for distance and blended learning, strengthening regional cooperation and pooling resources for the development and diversification of educational resources.
The two-day experience-sharing workshop, which started yesterday, has brought together teachers, officials of UNESCO, national commissions for UNESCO and the Education ministries of the five countries to discuss issues relating to digital learning, particularly an online learning platform that UNESCO and the GPE have supported the countries to develop.
At the workshop, a Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, said the project was one of several UNESCO projects being implemented in Ghana and which were contributing immensely to the government’s efforts at integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into the country’s educational system at all levels.
“I wish to express my profound gratitude to UNESCO for its COVID-19 educational response that ensured continuity of learning in many countries, including Ghana, during the peak of the pandemic.
The Ghanaian Times says that the blazing heat radiated from the wood-fired oven of the Bethel Brothers Bakery in Ghana’s capital Accra, as a dozen men hastily shaped dough into hundreds of rolls that would be scattered through the city the following morning.
The bakery, founded nearly 25 years ago by childhood friends Raphael Borketey and David Eshun, churns out hundreds of loaves of bread each day for households, restaurants and street traders but spiralling inflation could soon shut its doors.
“Every month they increase the price of flour… sugar, margarine, all things that we need to produce bread,” Borketey said.
“You try to stand, then a new (price increase) will come and knock you down again.”
Supply chain bottlenecks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a depreciating national currency and other global market factors have sent inflation spiralling over the past nine months to its highest levels since 2016, with the country’s consumer price inflation hitting 15.7 per cent in February.
Cereals have seen some of the steepest price rises – and that was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month further stretched global commodity markets, particularly wheat. Ghana imports nearly a quarter of its wheat from Russia, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
The inflation has been disastrous for bakeries, whose sales prices are standardised by the national bakers’ association and have not risen since August.
Many have had to reduce portion size or illegally hike prices to stay afloat. Bethel Brothers is laden with debt and has been forced to lay off staff.
“We have sacrificed a lot (and) this (inflation) could bring it all to an end,” Borketey said. “A bad month or year can put you out of business. It’s very painful.”
GIK/APA