The chairman of the Parliamentary select committee on food and Agriculture and Cocoa affairs, Mr. Kwame Asafu Agyei, is considering submitting a bill before Ghana’s parliament to scalp agriculture inputs smugglers in the country.
He is, therefore, proposing a 50-year imprisonment term and total ban for persons who indulge in smuggling any government subsidized inputs and fertilizers meant for the agricultural transformational agenda.
His comment follows the recent smuggling of subsidized fertilizer into our neighboring countries. The lawmaker says it is time for parliament to enact a law that will sanction such culprits.
It has been reported that about 50, 000 bags of subsidized fertilizer meant for the government’s flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs were smuggled outside the country under the coupon system last year to Mali and Cameroon.
Mr Asafu Agyei, implore the government to engage the service of the unemployed youth within our border territories to monitor and police the distribution of such goods in the future.
Speaking on Oyerepa 100.7Fm Breakfast show on Wednesday, 8th May 2019, he called for tougher preventive measures to curb the canker, since, the country last year lost over 12 million dollars worth of subsidized fertilizer through smuggling.
This, he said, calls for nationalistic approach in unending this canker hovering around our neck.
Here are excerpts from Hon. Kwame Asafu-Agyei
