Trade Minister designate K. T. Hammond has revealed that he was horrified to know that Ghana imports guts, bladders and stomachs of animals into the country.
Answering a question on what he makes of government’s efforts on import substitution before Parliament’s appointments Committee for vetting, he said it is time government took a critical look at import substitution due to its impact on the country’s economy.
“I’ve got some strong personal views of my own which may appear to coincide with that of the government.
“When we hit the snag, I went around speaking to whoever wanted to hear me out. Why is it that t everything that we can think about is being imported into this country, which has a terrible effect on our currency,” he asked.
“It is about time we took a serious look at this particular issue,” he said.
He added that at the cabinet level, about 50 areas were considered for import substitution but he was scandalized when he found that we are importing guts, bladders and stomachs of animals.
“It’s been decided at that level that we should be looking at about 50 specific areas where it is very important to look at issues of import substitution.
“Now, what I found scandalizing is what appeared in paragraph four of the items that they have listed. You know what we are importing into Ghana,” he asked.
“We are importing guts, we are importing bladders and we are importing stomachs of animals to Ghana.”
