GH¢770 million needed to stop rice farmers from drowning in surplus, NAFCO says it’s still waiting on GH¢200 million promised in the budget.
The National Food Buffer Stock Company says it needs at least GH¢770 million to mop up the surplus rice produced in the 2025 – 2026 farming season. Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs, Emmanuel Arthur, disclosed this on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement on the Ghana Rice Policy. Speaking on Citi Fm, Mr Arthur said that NAFCO was still buying grain with the GH¢100 million released by the government in 2025, although the amount was not enough to fully address the glut. “The GH¢200 million additional that the Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, announced in the 2026 Budget has not been disbursed,” he said. Mr Arthur dismissed assertions by the Association of Ghana Rice Producers and Processors that NAFCO was buying smuggled rice instead of local produce, saying all purchases had been made from Ghanaian farmers through licensed buying companies. He said the continued complaints from farmers and millers including the stock of rice not sold in Akuse were as a result of inadequate funding and not neglect. The discussion comes on the heels of a directive by President John Dramani Mahama to NAFCO to give priority to locally produced rice for the School Feeding Programme and the Free SHS supply chain, as the company also works with the World Food Programme to rehabilitate storage facilities in readiness for further procurements.
