On September 12, the Embassy attended the 2nd National Oil Palm Stakeholder Forum, which was organized by the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (ODAG) in combination with the first General Assembly of OPDAG. The theme of the conference was “Oil Palm: Agenda for growth and jobs” and addressed important issues such as access to finance.
The establishment of OPDAG was supported through the Sustainable West Africa Palm Oil Program (SWAPP ll), which is co-financed by Switzerland under the economic cooperation and development activities of SECO, and the Dutch Embassy in Ghana. OPDAG has the mandate to mobilize and engage the national palm oil stakeholders and to engage in policy dialogue. SWAPP ll is an integral part of SECO’s Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Program, which addresses bottlenecks in the palm oil and cashew value chains in a comprehensive way.
During the opening ceremony, the Deputy Head of Cooperation of the Swiss Embassy, Ms. Anne Schick, mentioned the great potential for Ghana in the palm oil sector for job creation and thus social welfare. She also mentioned that Ghana has the opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the world that palm oil can be grown competitively within a small holder approach and without creating deforestation.
