The African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided Ghana with a US$18.8 million grant to accelerate domestic rice production, strengthen processing capacity and reduce the country’s estimated US$500 million annual rice import bill, as the government intensifies efforts to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2028.
The grant, announced by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, at the launch of the Regional West Africa Resilient Rice Value Chains Development Project (REWARD-Ghana) in Tamale, comes at a time when Ghana’s milled rice production has increased from approximately 685,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 960,000 metric tonnes in 2025.
Despite the progress, local production currently meets only 56 per cent of national rice consumption, leaving a 44 per cent supply gap that is largely filled through imports.
