Finance Minister Demands Ghc500m to Mitigate Looming Food Insecurity

In the wake of the recent drought that has hit about eight regions in the country with the likelihood of affecting food security, the Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has written to the Finance committee of parliament to requesting a withdrawal of Ghc 500 million from the contingency Fund.

According to the letter signed by the Finance minister, Dr. Amin Adam, the approval of the Ghc 500 million will help in mitigating the imminent food insecurity due to the dry weather that has hit eight regions in Ghana.

Excerpts of the letter read, “The Ministry is in receipt of letter no. SC504/505/03 dated 19th August, 2024 from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), requesting funding to implement a National Emergency Response Programme to address an impending food security crisis.

In the letter under reference, MoFA indicates that as a result of protracted poor rainfall in eight (8) regions of the country – namely, Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti, crop production have been significantly disrupted resulting in:

Food shortage:

Loss of Farmer Investment income:

Decline in GDP, and

Increase in security threats and extremism.”

Read full letter below:

The Ministry is in receipt of letter no. SC504/505/03 dated 19th August, 2024 from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), requesting funding to implement a National Emergency Response Programme to address an impending food security crisis.

In the letter under reference, MoFA indicates that as a result of protracted poor rainfall in eight (8) regions of the country – namely, Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti, crop production have been significantly disrupted resulting in:

Food shortage:

Loss of Farmer Investment income:

Decline in GDP, and

Increase in security threats and extremism.

In view of the above, MoFA is requesting for funding estimated at GH¢8.36 billion, to implement a number of measures to avert a full-blown food security crisis including: Mopping up stock from farmers;

Urgent importation of Grains; and Cash Transfers as well as Input Support to affected farmers.

Mr. Chairman, considering that we are eight (8) months into the implementation of the 2024 Budget and the proposed interventions are unplanned expenditure occasioned by a “force majeure”, Government can not fund the request of GH¢8.36 billion solely from a reallocation of existing budget lines in the 2024 Budget.

In light of the foregoing, we write to request approval from the Finance Committee for the withdrawal of GH¢ 500 million from the Contingency Fund, in accordance with Article 177 subsection 1 of the 1992 Constitution, Section 36 subsection 1 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) as well as Section 227 subsection 1 of the Standing Orders of Parliament of Ghana.

To complement this withdrawal, Government is mobilizing support from Development Partners as well as realigning approved fiscal operations in the 2024 Budget.

Mr. Chairman, given the assessed impact of the impending food security crisis in five (5) Northern Regions and Three (3) Transtional Zones affecting over 900.00 farmers and hiegthening the risk of extremism, your urgent approval would enable Government implement the critical measures required to address the situation.

Source: Kobina Darlington/peacefmonline.com