Author name: Dr Maxwell Ampong

Just like many other countries around the world, oil palm is aboriginal to Ghana. This is because, the country’s weather and apt soil conditions allow for its vast production. Oil palm is a local staple food for Ghanaians of all cultural backgrounds and have created job opportunities for many over the years. Aside this, it contributes immeasurably to the country’s coffers. I’ve been thinking about the oil palm industry for a few weeks now. A Turkish processing company asked that I research the possibility of them importing Palm Kernel Shells. Palm Kernel Shells or PKS are the shells fragments that are left over after palm kernel is crushed in the mill. I am aware of PKS’s availability; I just didn’t know that it is extremely sort after. The shells, not to talk of the palm kernel.  That got me thinking about the entire palm oil industry. On the international level, oil palm accounts for more than half of the global import and export trade of all vegetable oils. As a result of its frequent production around the world, oil palm can also be found in a variety of stuff including food, nonessentials, and biofuels. In the same vein, it is globally the most edible oil having exceeded all others in 2015 according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (2019). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also estimated its global production at 50 million tonnes in the crop year ending September 2011. Yet, the state of the oil palm industry throughout the world is often swept under the carpet and rarely discussed, at least from my light research conducted. Regardless, it is an undisputable fact that one of the most contentious issues on sustainable agriculture across the world has to do with the oil palm industry. Most controversial is the seeming disparity between its economic impacts and its environmental and social effects; I’m talking about issues relating to deforestation & the loss of biodiversity, social tensions & conflicts due to land acquisition. In a 2019 report by The Guardian, worldwide annual production of palm oil according to the USDA from 2018 to 2019 was nearly 81.6 million tons. This shows that a significant proportion of people use products or items containing oil palm around the world. There is an estimated three billion users of palm oil products in 150 countries. There is a global average user consumption of 8kg of palm oil annually. Oil palm grows mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America with Indonesia and Malaysia being its principal  producers. These leading producers of oil palm, i.e. Indonesia and Malaysia, offer the international market 85% of global oil palm produce. But in spite of these high productions figures increasing revenues in these countries, there are mega environmental and social damages.  The dominant nature of the oil palm industry Oil palm cannot be spoken of without its source – the palm tree. It is general knowledge that the palm tree from which we subsequently derive the oil palm has immeasurable benefits. I believe that one way or the other we all may have shared in the numerous benefits of the palm tree. If you’re an adult Ghanaian that mostly lived in Ghana, then chances are that you cracked the shell one time and chewed on the nut. Palm trees are unquestionably among the most vital tress here on planet earth. All of its parts can be transformed into something valuable. Aside the oil palm, other items such as palm wine, woods, brooms, palm kernel, mats, among others can be gotten from the palm tree. Oh and Palm Kernel Shell! It is also an undisputable fact that oil palm is the most popular item derived from the palm tree. It is hauled out of the palm fruit and used for cooking oil, soaps, waxes, toothpastes and many more. With this knowledge, it can be noted that the dominant nature of the oil palm industry can be attributed to its universal and continual relevance.  Factors contributing to Oil Palm dominance. After what you’ve read so far, it would be safe to say that the oil palm industry has a lot to control. This dominance of the oil palm industry can be hinged on five forces or factors.  An ingredient in almost everything  In line with the above already discussed, oil palm is almost in everything, from foods to cosmetics and biofuels. It is also the most common cooking oil across the world because of its high heat resistance, long shelf life and, most importantly, its low price. This notion is substantiated by an estimation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that palm oil can be found in about 50% of packaged items in the supermarket. This ranges from everything like detergents, to candy, to cosmetics.  Oil Palms also have higher production rates than other vegetable oils as it demands smaller amounts of energy, fertilizer and pesticides to produce. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) agrees. WWF has stated that oil palm produces around thirty-five percent (35%) of all vegetable oil. Oil farm farmers do this on less than 10% of all land allocated to oil-producing crops. In contrast, other oils such as coconut oil or soybean oil would utilise anywhere between four (4) and ten (10) times more land. A driving force for environmental and social effects Though oil palm production contributes immensely to the creation of employment opportunities and revenues, it forms part of the factors responsible for some forms of social and environmental destruction including the following; forest and peatland burning and the resulting haze; deforestation and the loss of biodiversity; social tensions and conflicts due to land acquisition; infringement of local rights in rural communities; and the unjust treatment of smallholder farmers. Hence, despite its high production rate across the world, it is apparent that the expansion of oil palm plantations means that palm oil production would contribute largely to escalating the already existent destruction of lands, thus deforestation and other social problems. On a scale

One of the main sources of animal protein for many households in Ghana comes from frozen Chicken (Kwadzo et al., 2013). According to the United States development agency (USDA, 2017) , one of Ghana’s most consumed and highly preferred animal proteins is frozen chicken. As much as there is a high demand for it, a sizeable proportion of frozen chicken is not produced in Ghana. Ghana highly depends on the imports of frozen chicken from developed countries (Banson et al., 2015). Most of the frozen chicken in Ghana are imported from the countries such as Belgium, the United States of America, Poland, Brazil, and the Netherlands. In 2011 Ghana imported over 155,000 metric tons of frozen chicken worth $169 million. The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) reported that over 135,000 metric tons of frozen chicken were imported from European countries between 2016 to 2017. This representing a seventy-six percent increase in the importation of frozen chicken from the European Union. While the demand for frozen chicken continues to rise, the domestic supply appears to be stagnant over the years.  Below is the trend of Ghana’s importation of poultry meat. As shown in Figure 1, there has been an upsurge in importation from 93,108 metric tons in 2016 to about 222,000 metric tons in 2018. Comparatively, the exportation of poultry meat to other countries is safe to say, nil, as shown in Figure 1.   On average, the consumption of chicken in Ghana grows at a rate of six percent (6%) per year. This trend of chicken consumption will continue to increase due to rapid population growth and economic growth. The local industry used to be responsible for providing high-quality protein meat and supplied about ninety-five percent of the country’s total domestic poultry meat requirement. However, since the mid-1990s, the share of domesticproduction has declined. Domestic chicken meat production only supplies less than twenty percent of the total domestic demand, with the excess demand met by imports (Naggujja et al., 2020; Randon & Ashitey, 2011).  Naggujja et al., 2020 assert that because of structural constraints such as the high cost of poultry feeds, equipment, and financing for efficient production, domestic producers are unable to produce to meet the increasing demand for the commodity. One of the major issues hampering poultry production in Ghana is the high cost of production. The soaring cost of production is largely due to the high cost of feed and medicines. The feeds used in poultry production in Ghana include; corn or imported yellow corn, soybean cake, cotton-seed cake, copra cake, kernel cake, soybean meal, and fish meal; vitamin-mineral premixes are generally imported. Most of the imported feeds are taxed, and the cost of corn in Ghana is also ever-rising. The average cost of producing chicken meat in Ghana is far above the imported ones. The cost of feed has been known to be more than seventy percent (70%) of the cost of producing chicken meat (Banson et al., 2015).  Poor and inadequate local infrastructure also contributes to the high cost. The majority of poultry production in the country takes place in the rural hinterlands, away from the urban areas where the demand is high. These high costs have resulted in a reduction in the returns on producing chicken meat locally. As a result, many of the producers in the country have diverted from broilers production to producing layers (Etuah et al., 2020; Rudloff & Schmieg, 2016). Aside from the high cost of production, inadequate protection of the poultry industry from unfair competitionand trade practices is a cause of the low domestic production. It leads to the very high imports of foreign-produced frozen chicken into the Ghanaian market.  The domestic cost of producing a unit is far above the price of imported chicken. The poultry imported from Europe and the United States of America is heavily subsidized, making the imports artificially low-costcompared to the domestic produce. Imported chicken is about thirty-five to forty percent cheaper than what is produced domestically. The local farmer cannot compete. This phenomenon is not healthy for the domestic industry as it undermines the growth of the local industry. As a result, imported chicken tends to be less expensive than what is produced domestically (Banson et al., 2015).   Furthermore, the growing strong preference, for various reasons, for imported frozen chicken is also a contributing factor in Ghana becoming a net importer of frozen chicken. The strong preference for the imported poultry meat is due to its availability in different parts, sizes, and forms. This makes it very convenient for the average Ghanaian household compared to whole dressed birds, which is the dominant meat product of the local poultry industry (Dziwornu et al., 2014; Takyi-Mensah, 2012). This is also one of the reasons why most local poultry farmers have shifted their attention from broiler production to the production of layers (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 2013). It is worth iterating that constraints responsible for the slow growth of the country’s poultry production are lack of processing capacity, inadequate finance and access to credit, low disease-resistant breeds of livestock leading to high incidence of livestock diseases, and limited access to appropriate technology.  I had an interesting discussion with the leading importers of frozen products in Ghana; IDS LIMITED, IZAKO LIMITED & OMEGA 3 IMPEX LIMITED, on the use of technology in the industry. The need for affordable and efficient equipment in the local demand of poultry was not understated by all of them them. To them, they’d easily purchase from local producers as well once local production gets competitive, and meet quality demands that the market dictates. The guys at IDS Limited are however deploying impressive use of modern technology in the distribution and supply of their commodities. Nonetheless, despite the many challenges of poultry production in Ghana, the country needs to change this trajectory. Measures need to be implemented to cut the high dependency on imported chicken to revamp the industry. Ghana stands to gain a lot if it is able to address the major constraints faced by the industry.  Among the reasons why government and other stakeholders need to pay critical attention to the development of the industry is;  Frozen chicken remains one of the most preferred sources of animal protein in the country. The demand for chicken meat continue to increase; again, the consumption of it on average increases at a rate of about six percent (6%) per year. According to the USDA (2017), the demand for chicken meat is

In his review of the economy in parliament in 2003, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo described the gap between BoG and the lending rate of the commercial banks to be unacceptably high. He called on the banks to respond positively to the decline in the inflation rate. In 2021, the senior advisor to the President of Ghana and my fellow Akora from Achimota again, in his address to the gathering at the 2021 Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition in Accra, called on Commercial banks to reduce their lending rate. His call at the Summit was mainly based on the fact that factors such as exchange rate, inflation and prime rate that affect the cost of lending rates have been on a decline due to the banking sector reforms. Therefore, the reforms have addressed the inherent risk elements of commercial banks’ lending, and as such, the interest rate and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) policy rate gap should be narrowed. He is absolutely right. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) sets the prime rate, which various commercial banks and other financial institutions also operate with in Ghana. This influences the commercial banks’ lending rates. It serves as a benchmark used to signal the cost of funds, which is expected to be transmitted throughout the financial system, as banks reflect it in transactions among themselves and with the general public. The degree of transmission of the policy rate depends on the degree of development and competition in the financial system. However, in Ghana, the transmission of the policy rate through the lending rates of the individual banks has been extremely tardy (Kwakye, 2010). In as much as the decline in the BoG’s policy rate is a major determinant of the lending rates of the commercial banks in Ghana, other facts equally exert significant influence on the lending rates of commercial banks. Notable among them is the commercial banks’ Minimum Reserve. The commercial banks’ Minimum Reserve is the percentage of deposits commercial banks must be retained as a backup. The BoG also determines this, such that whenever BoG makes an upwards adjustment of the commercial banks’ reserve, the amount of money available to the banks to lend to their customer is reduced. Prof. Joshua Yindenaba Abor is a qualified accountant, financial economist and Professor of Finance with a lot of years’ expertise mainly in economics research and development finance. Abor (2004) asserts that the commercial banks’ Minimum Reserve requirement eventually leads to an increase in interest rate. It safe to suggest that the impact of the increase in the minimum capital requirement for commercial Banks from GH¢ 120 million to GH¢ 400 million by the BoG is one of the reasons why the lending rate is still high. The central premise of the call of Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo is the impact of the banking sector clean-up exercise. He believes that the reform has reduced the risk elements of commercial banks’ lending. One of the indicators of this risk element is the non-performing loan ratio (NPL), which measures the effectiveness of a bank in receiving repayments on its loans. The 2020 BoG Banking Sector Report indicates that the NPL ratio was 18.4% at the end of 2018, this declined to 14.3% in 2019 due to the reforms. However, the NPL ratio at the end of 2020 began to rise again due to real non-recovery of credit. Since this is a ratio, it is possible that the total amount of outstanding loans the bank holds is increasing whilst the amount of non-performing loans in a bank’s loan portfolio remains unchanged, causing the ratio to increase. Also, the fact that the non-performing loan ratio has declined does not necessarily mean that the value of the non-performing loans has declined. Would you say that the period after the clean-up exercise represents a feasible time space to perform a cost-benefit analysis for lending rate declines? It is important to interrogate whether the banking sector clean-up has really reduced the risk element of commercial banks’ lending. The reforms came with some cost – some GH¢ 21billion was spent by the government on the clean-up. This is the reason for the introduction of a new 5 percent financial sector clean-up levy in the 2021 budget. The levy is expected to help provide the money to pay for outstanding commitments in the sector and is projected to run until 2024 and be reviewed after that. This could be one of the reasons why commercial banks are dragging their feet in reducing their lending rates. Since the banks are in the business of making a profit, they will shift the cost on the borrowers, causing their lending rates and other charges to be high. Additionally, the clean-up also reduced the number of banks from thirty-four (34) to twenty-three (23). At the same time, three hundred and forty-seven (347) micro-finance institutions, fifteen (15) savings and loans, and eight (8) finance houses had their licenses revoked. Kwakye (2010) asserted that the degree of transmission of the policy rate depends to a large extent on the degree of competition in the financial system. Therefore, the decline in the number of banks and financial institutions will impact the competition in the banking sector. One possible implication of this decline in the number of in the number of banks and other financial institutions in Ghana now is that it prevents commercial banks from decreasing their lending rates. The immediate impact of the reduction in the number of banking institutions imposes a constraint on credit accessibility, interest rate, and credit rationing (Maiti et al., 2020). According to Boamah (2019), the expectation is that competition of the commercial banks for customers will result in a substantial fall in their lending rates. However, the contrary is true in the case of Ghana as Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo has stated recently. The truth is, while increased competition in the banking sector in Ghana did not lead to a low lending rate, a reduction in competition through the