Former President John Dramani Mahama has admitted that his government made mistake in buying tractors for farmers during his tenure as President.
Mr Mahama says that given another opportunity, he will rather buy the tractors, and put them in a pool for someone with the expertise to manage and give the tractor service to farmers.
"I understood a some of the things that we did, we made mistake, we imported tractors and agriculture equipment, and we gave it to farmers. The farmers does not need the tractor, he does not need with the agricultural equipment, he needs the service of a tractor," the former President said in Munich.
The former President added "so someone who knows how to maintain that tractor must have an service centre, where he provide the service to the farmers. In any case, we gave the tractors to the farmer, and in a year or two the tractor had broken down because he [farmer] doesn't know that every six months you should change the engine oil, you should change the filters, you should grease the tractor, he [farmer] doesn't have the foggiest idea about that. So we will move toward it in an unexpected way.
Former President Mahama is in Munich, Germany, going to the 59th Munich Security Conference 2023. The conference provides a platform for high-level debates "on key foreign and security policy challenges."
Mr Mahama is the Chairperson of the Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa. The Tana Forum in collaboration with Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e.V. (BDI) on Saturday, hosted a side events, a MSC Regional Breakfast on "Africa's Place in a multipolar world: Moving from strategy to action."
The session was opened by President Mahama as Chair of the Tana Forum and addressed by the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, and Wolfgang Niedermark of BDI, the Federation of German Industries.
South Africa's Minister for Defence, Thandi Modise, delivered the keynote comments.