The General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) is pushing for the government to come up with a new policy to compel local banks to channel a certain percentage of their loan portfolio into Agriculture.

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General Secretary of GAWU, Mr Edward Kareweh said the proposal has been tabled before successive governments for years but nothing has been done about it.

“This proposal has all along been on the drawing board, we have articulated it except that government has done nothing about it," he told Accra-based Citi FM.

"We want the government to indicate or have a policy that a certain percentage of the loan portfolio of banks in the year should go into agriculture.”

He bemoaned the fact that despite the numerous banks dotted across the country, they are unwilling to support agriculture in the country.

He posited that Ghanaian banks are among the most profitable in Africa, wondering why they are unable to grant loans to farmers.

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He said: “Ghanaian banks are among the richest or the most profitable in Africa, why is it that they are still unable to grant loans to agriculture. Why are banks trooping in? why are more banks coming into the economy,”

“Why can’t our government make policy so they allocate a portion of their credit to agriculture. Agriculture is a very important sector of the economy and it needs credit to fashion properly and expands,” he added.