Prospective hemp farmers and investors can expect to soon be able to apply for licences from the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) of Ghana any time soon as the body is reported to have finalised licensing fees and all the required protocol to allow willing participants to take part in the cannabis industry.
An official from NACOC appeared on Ghanaian television earlier this week saying the fees and conditions to participate in the hemp economy were now awaiting the approval of lawmakers in Parliament.
Ghana’s Parliament has been on recess and resumed sitting 10 days ago. Cannabiz Africa has seen a communiqué from Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin in which he announced the resumption of activities at Parliament House. NACOC was then expected to unveil its package of fees and charges and conditions in the early stages of Parliament’s current sitting.
The process to inaugurate a hemp economy for the West African country had been held up by pending key appointments to NACOC, including to posts of a CEO and a director-general.
Local observers think hemp can make up for lost cocoa production, which has been destabilised by illegal mining activity with some farmers looking to hemp as a welcome substitute due to its proportionately higher market price.
About 300 farmer groups in some of the country’s 16 regions are waiting to plant hemp amid high hopes that it could bring substantive socio-economic upliftment. Once the allocated acreage is cleared and licensing sorted, Ghana can look forward to supplying both raw materials and the finished product to the market consistently, with automotive, construction, food & beverage, hempcrete, personal care and textile hemp products expected to headline the processed goods market.
Ghana’s road to legalisation has been long and tortuous. Friendly legislation was enacted in March 2020 with the passing of the Narcotics Control Commission 2020 (Act 1019), with presidential assent following two months later. It then took three long years for the Legal Instrument (LI) to be published as farmers and investors waited anxiously.
The Act empowers the Minister of Interior to authorise the cultivation of cannabis for industrial and medicinal purposes but forbids recreational use despite the fact that cannabis is illegally grown widely in the country and suggestions that legalising cultivation would formalise a huge black market.
Hempire Association of Ghana (HAG), the leading advocacy hemp grouping in the country has called for more off-takers to help Ghana get its hemp industry up and running and highlighted the huge potential that a hemp export market holds.
A few key potential foreign investors have expressed interest to come on board, including Aura of Canada. Locally, the commercial arm of HAG, the Hempire Agric Ghana Ltd, otherwise known as Hemp Agric Ghana, will be a principal investor.
