By Gifty Arthur
The government of President John Dramani Mahama has directed the repayment of grains borrowed from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), clearing a debt inherited from the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, announced that the President has instructed the release of 50,000 bags of maize to ECOWAS an obligation the current administration discovered only after taking office in 2025.
The maize and rice were borrowed from ECOWAS in 2018 to support the School Feeding Programme while it then-government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs initiative was underway, but the debt remained unpaid for the entire eight-year tenure of the Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the National Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO), Opoku recalled that he disclosed the debt to the President at the launch of the Feed Ghana programme in Techiman, in the Bono East Region, and pledged to settle it within a year.
“In 2018, the government of Ghana went to ECOWAS to borrow maize and rice to support School Feeding, but from that time until we came into office, it was never repaid,” he said. “We promised the President that once we started Feed Ghana, within one year we would repay the maize loan.”
That pledge received a major boost from the late Minister for Defence, Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, who died in a helicopter crash in August 2025 alongside seven others.
Before his death, he assured the Agriculture Minister that the Ghana Armed Forces one of the institutions participating in the Feed Ghana programme would produce enough food to help offset the debt.
“If I tell you the farms the soldiers are making this year, you will clap for them,” Mr Opoku said in June 2025, recalling his conversation with the late Defence Minister. “He told me, ‘Eric, as Ghanaian soldiers, we are going to produce to make up for any outstanding food debt.’ They started this year with 100 acres of maize it is no child’s play”, the Minister said in an interview June 2025.
The repayment has been made possible by a bumper harvest under the Feed Ghana programme. Ghana produced 4.6 million tonnes of maize in 2025 against an estimated national demand of 3.6 million tonnes, leaving a surplus of about one million tonnes.
According to the Minister, NAFCO currently holds 20,433 metric tonnes of grain in storage — enough to support the repayment while still leaving the company’s warehouses full.
“Today, we have purchased enough food to the extent that we can pay the loan and still have some left,” Opoku said. “The President has instructed that NAFCO release 50,000 bags of grain to pay off ECOWAS so that Ghana does not owe them.”
The settlement comes amid a remarkable turnaround in NAFCO’s finances.
The company moved from a net loss of GH¢19 billion in 2024 to a net profit before tax of GH¢91.7 billion in 2025, according to accounts submitted to the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA). Its gross profit margin also rose from 1.61 per cent to 13.96 per cent over the same period.
NAFCO’s Chief Executive Officer, George Abradu-Otoo, attributed the improvement to stronger governance, including the establishment of audit, procurement and food safety functions.
“Before I assumed office, there was no audit department, and people were doing what they liked,” he told the Ghana News Agency. “We have controlled expenditure where costs are incurred without value, I will not pay.”
He added that work was underway to ensure every district in Ghana has a warehouse for food storage, as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s strategic food reserves.