Ghana’s annual post-harvest losses are so severe that they could feed the entire Ashanti Region for more than a year, agribusiness expert and CEO of Agri-Impact Limited, Daniel Fahene Acquaye, has revealed.
Speaking at the first Regional Agribusiness Dialogue in Kumasi on Friday, October 10, 2025, Mr. Acquaye described the situation as both alarming and wasteful, calling for urgent reforms and investment in agribusiness infrastructure.
“Our post-harvest losses per annum are estimated between $1.9 and $2 billion. I recently calculated that the value of food and non-alcoholic beverages consumed in the Ashanti Region alone is GH₵14 billion, about $1.2 billion depending on the exchange rate you use. This means the food we lose every year could feed the entire Ashanti Region for more than one and a half years,” he said.
He cautioned that Ghana’s continued importation of food despite these losses was unsustainable, noting that the country still spends close to $2 billion annually on food imports.
Mr. Acquaye reiterated his long-standing call for the creation of an AgriFund — a dedicated financing mechanism to drive growth across the agricultural value chain and make agribusiness a cornerstone of Ghana’s economy.
“If we say agriculture will transform our economy, then why don’t we have an AgriFund?” he asked. “We must reset for transformative agri-investments.”
The Kumasi engagement marked the first in a series of regional consultations toward developing Ghana’s first National Agribusiness Policy, spearheaded by the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry (MoTAI) in collaboration with Agri-Impact Limited, Mastercard Foundation, PwC, Development Bank Ghana, and other partners.
According to Kwame Ntim, Head of Agribusiness at MoTAI, the dialogues are intended to gather stakeholder input for a coherent national policy framework that will align fragmented initiatives and drive sector-wide growth.
“The agribusiness sector has operated in a fragmented manner with no single policy guiding it. These consultations will help us develop a strategic framework for coordinated growth,” he explained.
A Partner at PwC Ghana, Hayfron Aboagye, also underscored the need for collaboration, urging industry players to take ownership of the sector’s transformation.
“It’s baffling that with our vast arable land, we still consider ourselves poor. Agriculture and agribusiness present both a challenge and an opportunity — one that requires collective effort,” he said.
The regional engagements follow a National Agribusiness Dialogue held in July 2025, attended by President John Dramani Mahama and the sector Minister, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, marking Ghana’s renewed commitment to making agribusiness a driver of national prosperity.
