Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, has expressed optimism about Ghana's potential to emerge as a major food exporter, attributing this to the country's growing agricultural sector.

During the 5th anniversary of the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL), Dr. Addison emphasized the vital role agriculture plays in Ghana's economy, particularly in creating jobs and ensuring food security.

He pointed out that food items constitute 43.7% of the consumer basket in Ghana, underscoring the sector’s importance to the country's overall food security.

Dr. Addison also addressed Ghana's heavy dependence on food imports, which account for around 10% of total imports, valued at $1.5 billion. He urged efforts to reduce these imports to help conserve foreign exchange reserves.

Furthermore, he noted that focusing on export-driven agriculture could significantly boost Ghana’s foreign exchange earnings, positioning the nation as a key player in the global food trade.

“Agriculture Financing is a critical strategy to Ghana’s development strategy due to the important role agriculture plays in the economy, particularly in employment and food security. From the Macroeconomic perspective, agriculture contributes about 24% of the GDP and employs an estimated 40% of the workforce.”

“Development within the agricultural sector is critical for the economy given the weight of food items in the consumer basket which accounts for 43.7 % and therefore a major driver of headline inflation in this country.

“It’s also instructive to know that on average, food imports nearly account for 10% of total imports, translating to about 1.5 billion in terms of import values.”

“The agricultural sector also holds a huge potential to help boost our country’s foreign exchange reserve. First, as an import substitution strategy, sufficient food production locally, will the food import bill [be enough] to prevent hard-earned forest exchange reserves.

“Secondly, through the export promotion strategy, Ghana could become a major food exporter which would improve the sector’s foreign exchange earnings.”