Ghana has launched a fresh push to strengthen agricultural financing with the inauguration of three Technical Committees tasked with designing frameworks to support cocoa, oil palm, and other high-value crops.
The initiative, led by Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, seeks to close long-standing funding gaps that have slowed productivity and weakened growth in the sector.
Committees to Drive Reform
The first body inaugurated – the Technical Committee on Agriculture Financing – has been given three weeks to produce a comprehensive financing policy for key crops. Its membership brings together officials from the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana, EXIM Bank, the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL), and the Development Bank of Ghana.
Two additional groups – the Oil Palm Project Committee and the Cocoa Project Committee – have also been formed, drawing members from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana Cocoa Board, Tree Crops Development Authority, Forestry Commission, and Environmental Protection Authority.
Boosting Productivity and Sustainability
Dr. Forson said the committees are expected to recommend practical strategies to ease access to credit, strengthen productivity, and embed sustainability across agricultural value chains.
“Supporting cash crops is central to Ghana’s broader economic transformation agenda,” he stressed, underscoring the government’s goal of making agriculture a more reliable driver of growth.
Committee Membership
Members of the Agriculture Financing Committee include David Collison, Samuel Arkhurst, Cynthia Arthur, Frederick Amissah, and Edna Baffoe-Bonnie from the Ministry of Finance; Emelia Awuviri and Desmond Agbogah from the Bank of Ghana; Samuel Yeboah from GIRSAL; Kojo Aboagye-Yeboah from EXIM Bank; and Prof. Eric Osei-Assibey from the Development Bank of Ghana. Deborah Ashun and Edna Baffoe-Bonnie will serve as secretaries.
The government hopes the work of the committees will lay the foundation for a more resilient agricultural financing system – one capable of unlocking investment in cocoa, oil palm and other strategic crops that remain vital to Ghana’s economy.
