Ghana’s present food situation is a reminder of Bob Marley’s philosophical observation. “In the abundance of water,” he sang, “the fool is thirsty.”
How can a country experiencing food glut have a single citizen facing hunger because “food is scarce” and “prices are high”? This is the paradox of Ghana that compels me to suggest that we throw out all the PhDs and double-Masters degree holders and place the economy in the hands of market women and spare parts dealers. The starkest illiterate trader will not preside over such incomprehensible and totally unacceptable economic failure.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that Ghana’s purchases of milled rice on international markets increased by 77.41%, from 620,000 tons in the 2021/2022 marketing year to 1.1 million tons in 2024/2025.
Meanwhile, over here in Ghana, we have so much rice that they are going bad!!!
While “experts” insist that Ghana cannot do without rice imports, it is very clear that the present glut is a direct result of the high volumes of rice imports. It is big business and the gossip is that top party financiers own those businesses. We’ve seen an example in the recent past where a party kingpin, in addition to being a rice and sugar importer, also had power, being a board member of the ports authority, to control the level of duties payable.
Why wouldn’t Ghana always be food import-dependent? The country’s hunger is somebody’s wealth.
In September this year, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Eric Opoku, announced that the government had released GH¢100 million to the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to purchase surplus food crops from farmers in the wake of existing and anticipated bumper harvests. The announcement came amid mounting concerns from farmers nationwide over the surplus of maize, rice, and eggs, which has caused significant post-harvest losses and economic hardship across the agricultural sector.
Providing details on how the GH¢100 million allocation had been utilised, Mr Osmond Amuah, NAFCO Deputy CEO, at a press briefing in Accra, revealed that NAFCO had so far purchased 60,000 bags of rice, 120,000 bags of beans and 10,000 bags of gari across different regions of the country.
But the problem persists. So, two months later, on November 12, President John Dramani Mahama, speaking at the launch of the Nkoko Nkitinkiti Poultry Initiative, directed the Minister of Finance to release an additional GH₵200 million to purchase surplus maize from farmers affected by the glut.
But there are signs and hints that the President’s directives could turn out to be mere words.
Several months after the announcement of the GH¢100 million intervention, a journalist who has travelled to a number of rice-producing communities revealed that farmers in some areas still had mountains of unsold rice. He specifically mentioned Nasia, the famous rice town. He was contributing to a discussion of the issue on an Accra radio, THIS WEEK, specifically on Wednesday.
If the journalist was exaggerating or lying, what about the farmers themselves? Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Bismark Owusu Nortey, told the media that despite the announcement, there has been little evidence of NAFCO purchasing produce directly from farmers.
“I have not had any report from any farmer saying he or she has experienced or witnessed NAFCO buying their produce, which is why we are a bit worried about where the GHC 100 million went to,” he said.
Mr Nortey emphasised that “no clear data indicates which districts benefited from the initiative.
“The 100 million cedis that was released, our information is that NAFCO has bought some rice, but the details are quite sketchy because we do not know where those rice sacks were bought from. I’ve not heard from my farmers or farmers elsewhere stating that they had their produce bought by NAFCO, but we know NAFCO has bought because we’ve seen some pictures of some rice being labelled with the NAFCO logo, so we just wanted more clarity on that,” he explained.
HE URGED NAFCO TO PUBLISH A LIST OF COMPANIES THAT WERE AWARDED CONTRACTS, INDICATING WHERE THE RICE WAS PURCHASED AND IN WHAT QUANTITIES. WITH THIS ANNOUNCEMENT OF GHS200 MILLION, THERE MUST BE CLEAR TIMELINES AND TRANSPARENCY ON HOW IT WILL BE DISBURSED.
Far from calling anybody a liar or accusing anybody of sleeping on their job, my appeal goes to the Chief of Staff at the Presidency. To Julius Debrah, I say, “The efficiency of government appointees is a direct function of the President’s Chief of Staff’s effectiveness. Here is your biggest challenge, Julius. If, under your watch as the coordinator and/or supervisor of appointees, there is evidence that ministers and MMDCEs are not performing, very soon, somebody will be tracing the inefficiency and bottlenecks to one source: you”.
While at it, we should be careful not to throw money at the problem. In Ghana, money intended for the good of the people has ended up in real estate owned by Presidential appointees.
This is the whole genesis or raison d’etre of ORAL.
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