ACCRA, Nov. 13 – Public institutions that spend government money on food for schoolchildren and the security services will be required by law to buy locally produced rice and sugar, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has announced, in a move intended to give Ghanaian farmers a guaranteed market.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Dr Forson said the government would amend the Public Procurement Act so that institutions using public funds to procure food must source those staples from local producers.
“We are going to amend the Public Procurement Act to ensure that, at a minimum, if you are using Ghana’s money to buy rice for Ghanaian schoolchildren or our men and women in uniform, that rice must come from a Ghanaian farm,” he said, according to Citi Newsroom.
He pointed to the School Feeding Programme and the Free Senior High School policy as the largest public channels for food procurement. The two programmes spend about GH¢6 billion a year on feeding, he estimated, creating a substantial opportunity for farmers to supply rice, maize and other food products.
Dr Forson questioned why public institutions should continue to import rice when local farmers were struggling to sell surplus produce. The proposed requirement, he said, would be legally enforceable, and institutions that ignored the amended law could face sanctions.
The announcement follows the presentation of the 2027 Budget Statement to Parliament on Thursday, in which the minister set out a wider plan to cut Ghana’s food import bill under the New Economy programme. According to Citi Newsroom’s report of the Budget, the government intends to end commercial rice imports by 2030. The Daily Graphic reported that he also set a target of self-sufficiency in sugar by the same year, and told the House: “If you use Ghana’s money to buy rice, you must buy Ghana rice.”
Import ban ‘doable’ by 2030
In a separate interview on Joy News on Friday, Dr Forson said Ghana could stop importing rice and sugar by 2030 if it raised domestic production and created a stronger market for local alternatives. Asked about the plan to prohibit imports of the two commodities by that date, he replied: “In four years, it’s doable easily,” according to MyNewsGH.
He said rice and sugar were among Ghana’s major imports and placed pressure on demand for foreign exchange. Ghana had the capacity to grow more rice at home, he argued, but had not done enough to create demand for it. Locally produced rice had once accounted for about 30 per cent of the market, even without major government intervention, yet the country had failed to lift that share to 50 per cent and then to full local supply.
Public procurement, he said, would be one of the main tools for expanding that market. The change would move the requirement from policy into law. “So we are mandating, no longer a policy but a law, that will create that demand for our farmers,” he said.
He stressed that the rule would apply to public funds, not to private shoppers. “If you have your own money and you are buying imported rice, so be it. But if we’re using Ghana’s money to buy rice, that rice must come from a Ghanaian farm,” he added.
Dr Forson said the broader aim was to raise domestic production, ease pressure on foreign exchange and keep more of the money spent on food inside the local economy. No date was given for when the procurement amendment would be laid before Parliament.