The Minister of Tourism, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has said that the government is committed to encouraging local production and consumption of rice and other staples to cut down on imports of such staples.

She said the measure would ensure that the nation spends its scarce foreign currency on more crucial imports and infrastructural development.

In a speech read on her behalf by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr. Joe Donkor, at the 21st Graduation ceremony for 102 students from the EKGS Culinary Institute in Accra on Sunday, she emphasized the need for Ghana to fashion out home-grown policies to weather the global financial crisis.

The ceremony was under the theme, The Global Financial Meltdown: Ghana’s Culinary Industry in Perspective.

Mrs Azumah-Mensah said tourist arrivals in the country is likely to reduce while the economies of tourist sites will also shrink as a result of the credit crunch brought on by the economic crisis.

She said the culinary industry can play a key role by projecting local food and using local produce to prepare dishes to attract even foreigners to them.

“It has often been said that necessity is the mother of invention. I, therefore, challenge players in the culinary industry to take the lead in helping us out of the woods. They should see the present situation as an opportunity to move away from foreign recipes and preparations and come up with cost-effective substitutes from local produce. When they do that, not only will they cut down cost but also help our farmers to produce more to keep our economy going.”

Hard work wins

She said the Tourism Ministry will facilitate the development of a more proactive tourism sector in the country, explaining that all over the world, nations are using tourism to rake in millions of dollars and we in Ghana cannot be left out.

Ms Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Communication (Stratcomm) Africa Limited, a private communications company, who chaired the ceremony, challenged the graduands to see the skills they had acquired as a stepping stone to pursue further growth and excellence.

She said God had given them new skills so they would not be idle and asked them to use the skills to glorify His name through hard work.

Ms Cobbah was grateful to Mrs Efua Goode-Arthur, Director of the EKGS Culinary Institute for her motherly care for the students which she said enabled a number of the students to complete their courses, and surprised at the rich handicrafts exhibited by the students, said she had no doubt they had been moulded to face carve a niche for themselves.


Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com