Ghana is to benefit from a five thousand US dollar (US$5000) blending plant in the Western region to develop the fertilizer value chain.
With the combination of natural Gas from Ghana and phosphate from Morocco, farmers would benefit from customised high quality and affordable fertilizer that would be produced. Ghana’s ambassador to Morocco Mr. Stephen Yakubu said this in an interview with GBC24 at Africities 2018, in Marrakesh.
Morocco has hinted that bilateral relations between Ghana and itself will further be strengthened to ensure that both countries benefit from each other. In line with this, the government of Ghana continues to share experiences in critical areas of the economy such as agriculture, aviation, housing, tourism, education among others.
Ghana’s ties with Morocco dates back to over sixty years when the two countries collaborated to fight colonialism and attain independence. Ghana’s ambassador to Morocco, Mr. Stephen Yakubu said over twenty (20) MOU’s have been signed with Morocco, this has resulted in the importation of Cocoa directly from Ghana instead of Spain as done previously.
The kingdom of Morocco has lots of experiences and expertise in producing poultry products. To assist Ghanaian poultry farmers in that regard, about twenty-two (22) Moroccan poultry farmers were in Ghana to offer training to their Ghanaian counterparts.
This is estimated to reduce fertilizer prices, increase farmers’ local fertilizer consumption and create jobs. Acknowledging the successes, political and economic strategies between Morocco and Ghana, Mr. Yakubu indicated that the increased investments and MOU’s signed between the two countries are indications of positive gains.
Ghana’s export to Morocco as at 2015 stood at US$3,624,000 representing less than one Percent of the country’s total export. Also imports from Morocco for the same period amount to US$64,806,000 representing 0.29percent of the country’s total export.
This is obvious that, there are lots of trade opportunities untapped. Hence, the need to deepen bilateral relations to reverse the less than satisfactory trend.
Story by Dorothy Agyeman
