Business

‘Help deepen discussions on agribusiness’

Mr Kwesi Korboe, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Advisor to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has said that agribusiness goes beyond farming to include all processes in the agriculture value chain.

He said although farming was part of agribusiness, it includes all activities of production, processing, and distribution, hence, the need for business and financial Journalists to help deepen discussions around agribusiness and ensure that the country derived maximum benefit from the sector.

He was speaking at the sixth Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) Flamingo Award for Business and Financial Journalism held on the theme: “Towards Agribusiness and the Sustainable Development Goals”

The Institute was formed in 1990 with the assistance of the World Bank, Ghana Office to help develop the skills of journalists in business and financial reporting.

Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, the Editor-In-Chief of African Eye Report, emerged the ultimate winner of this year’s Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ)-Flamingo Awards.

 Mr Kunateh’s award winning article titled: “Can Agribusiness Reduce Poverty in Ghana?” which won the overall award cleverly demonstrated how the agribusiness and agric sector are contributing to the reduction of poverty in the country.

He also won Best in Development and took home a citation and a plaque.

Prizes

Mr Korboe said that there was a need for the leadership of the Institute to put together experts to train members on the sector to further deepen their understanding to help discussions.

He said he would be willing to offer expertise in helping financial journalists to look at the sector from its many angles in the production, processing and distribution.

He said agribusiness has a wider scope with huge potentials to impact the lives of the ordinary Ghanaians since most were already operating in the space.

Mr Korboe commended all the award winners for standing out in the financial and economic journalism space.

Mr Edwin Alfred Provencal, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) said the bane of African development was the relegation of the agribusiness sector to the background.

He said: “We can only develop when we take advantage of our comparative advantage, which is agriculture,” adding that there was the need to align the government’s initiative of One District, One Factory with agribusiness in order to take full advantage of the agriculture sector.

Mr Kunateh urged his journalists to always do research before writing their stories.

According to him, researching on topics before writing would enable them to understand the topics very well thereby producing good stories. GNA

Show More
Back to top button