An Independent Presidential Hopeful, Rev. Dr. Worlanyo Mensah, an Economist and a Lecturer at Wisconsin University has stated that, he is going to transform Ghana through his agriculture policy if given the mandate to serve.
“I believe that through agriculture, the standard of living of every Ghanaian would greatly increase and Ghana will be the most stable country in the world”.
Speaking in an interview in Accra Dr Mensah revealed that, food security and water security alongside unemployment were among the challenges facing the country, which he would work hard to fix.
“So, my policy on Agriculture relative to job creation and reducing of unemployment has to do with developing agri-business. I believe that we have a chunk of lands that can be used for rice cultivation”.
Dr. Worlanyo sa as a result of the challenges associated with land in the country, it would be the priority of his Government to document every land through the digitization process and also, empower the technocrats including those in land reforms.
Commercial farming, he noted, could not be done without irrigation and assured to empower the Hydrological Service Department to able to give accurate weather data to enable farmers who want to rely on the weather for farming to know the favourable weather time for farming.
“I believe that if we are able to make Agriculture attractive, it is not only the youth that it will attract, the politicians will also go into farming. Why should we continue buying buses for Constituency Executives instead of buying tractors for them. If you buy tractors for them it makes sense. So we are not getting the policies right. That is why we need a neutral leader. A leader that only has the country at heart. A leader that will put the interest of Ghana first before his personal interest and I believe that is what I stand for”.
The Independent Presidential Hopeful disclosed that, once the country was able to cultivate the lands, ‘we should be able to feed the entire nation and Africa in general likewise, creating jobs’.
He promised value addition to the country’s products and that, he was going to diversify the agriculture sector thereby, setting up the manufacturing industry to process the products and at the same time, create jobs.
“I believe in the policies of” One District One Factory” which is laudable. We could have used it as a great local engineering policy to develop the local economy”.
Dr Worlanyo Mensah however, assured to empower the District Assemblies to roll out the agricultural programmes adding that, within every District Assembly, there are traditional areas likewise, the various groups such as Mosques, Churches and others.
Churches according him, would be used under his leadership to partner District Assemblies and empower them with funds to go into commercial farming, to employ a lot of people to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
“We will be able to achieve food security. We will be able to have food in abundance. That means, the cost of living will become lower. That means, the standard of living will be higher and people’s welfare as well as their health conditions will also be improved so that, they will be able to work more and increase the national output”.
Dr Worlanyo said, policies like Planting for Food and Jobs, would be taken from the hands of politicians who know nothing about farming to the Ghana Prisons Service, after relocating them from Towns and Cities to farm lands where they would be paid daily wages so that by the time they finished their prison terms, there would be a sizeable amount for them to start a new life.
“I realized that, that is very sustainable because it is not like the individual that you will employ today and tomorrow they will tell you that I am no longer interested. If the person is in prisons for 5 years, you can be assured of 4 years. If he is there for 10 years, you can be assured that he is there for 8 years. Government can use them as a yardstick in achieving food security for the country”.
Another area he mentioned food security could be achieved har to do with using Farmers Day celebration as a conduit for achieving food security.
“Why do we have National Farmers Day at the District level, Regional level and National level. People have achieved successes and are best farmers in different crops, different varieties of foodstuffs. Why is it that government cannot go into partnership with them that, if you excel at the District level in rice farming or yam or cassava or oranges or plantain, government will go into partnership with such people and give at the District level, at least GHS 500,000 so that, they multiple their farms five times . By so doing, they can employ more, harvest more and achieve food security and cost of living becomes very low”.
According to Dr Worlanyo Mensah, his government would go into agreement with best farmers who excel at the Regional level and would be given an amount of GHS700, 000 and they would not be allowed to win award for the next 3 years so that, others would have the opportunity to join the queue.
“Those who will win the National award, my Government will give them One Million Ghana Cedis to go into commercial farming. I can tell you that, if we are serious as a country with this policy alone in a matter of 3 years, Ghana will begin to feed the whole of West Africa”.
Ghana he mentioned, was in economic crunch and needed a dynamic leader, a transformational spiritual servant leader saying, development is not only about building roads but also, about building strong moral system, moral economy and moral fibre. “I believe, that is exactly what I want to do, I will make sure that the moral educationist is about decency, love destitute, curtesy, comportment, honesty and truthfulness becomes a part of the educational curriculum”.
He said, there was the need to move away from partisan politics of NPP and NDC in everything saying, the two parties have set up a structure which would never allow Ghana to be seen as a united country. “We need to disabuse our minds and the only thing we can do is to vote for a neutral person who has the interest of the country at heart”.
BRIEF BACKGROUND OF REV.DR WORLANYO MENSAH
Rev. Dr Worlanyo Mensah was born at Botoku in the Volta Region to Mr. Cephas Mensah Gbagagba and Madam Cecilia Attakumah.He attended Ziavi Dzogbe Primary and Junior High School in the Ho Municipality. He proceeded to Awudome Senior High School as a Business Accounting student. He then studied HND Accounting at the Accra Technical University here in Accra.
Rev. Dr Worlanyo Mensah also graduated from University of Cape Coast with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. And an Mphil in Development, Economics and Leadership from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
He went back to the University of Cape Coast (IDTM) as a PHD student in Development, Economics and Leadership. Rev.Dr Mensah is a chartered economist and Research fellow with the Institute of Charted Economist-Ghana. He also holds Diploma, Advance Diploma, Masters and a Doctorate degree in Theology from various theological institutions.
He worked as a Banker, an Accountant at an Oil Company and a Lecturer at Wisconsin University Collage. He is the Executive Director of Centre for Greater Impact – a governance and economic planning think-tank based here in Accra.
He is also the Head Pastor of Christ White House Chapel International. Finally, Rev. Dr. Worlanyo Mensah was recently appointed Country Director for the Ghana Chapter of Vision Afric – a movement under the Africa Union working to enhance Africa unity.
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