Agriculture ministry asks Finance to reverse Ghana's exit from West Africa food resilience programme

Pinned summary · as of 15:29

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has written to the Finance Ministry to press for a rethink of Ghana's request, sent to the World Bank on 23 September, to pull out of the regional food-system resilience programme for West Africa (FSRP). MoFA says it was not consulted beforehand, and that the Bank has since told the programme team to halt part of its work while contracts already signed still need to be paid for.

What we know

• Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku wrote to the Finance Minister asking for an urgent reconsideration of the withdrawal. MoFA says the request to the World Bank was made without any prior consultation with the ministry that implements the programme.
• MoFA puts the obligations already incurred under the programme at GH₵643.87 million. Of that sum, GH₵520.26 million is tied to International Development Association (IDA) financing and GH₵123.61 million to the FS2030 Trust Fund.
• MoFA cautioned that leaving the programme with no replacement financing could oblige government to settle the bills from other resources, and that this could bring delays, added costs or claims by contractors.
• In its letter, MoFA says the World Bank instructed on 24 September that anything paid for through the IDA credit or the Recipient-Executed Trust Funds be put on hold, both project work and purchasing. Tomato seed and micro-irrigation work is also affected.
• MoFA says the stoppage extends to several Feed Ghana support functions, among them farmer registration, digitisation and recruitment.
• The ministry listed irrigation repairs at Weta, Vea and Kpong, along with some inland-valley projects, as work that might be disrupted.
• MoFA asked the Finance Ministry to sit down with it, reconcile the outstanding contracts, payments due and affected activities, and only then return to the World Bank.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Citi Newsroom reported that MoFA also wants Finance to formally retract its notice and secure the Bank's written clearance before paused work resumes. MyJoyOnline and Kumasi Mail carried the same request, but The Vaultz News described only the reconciliation proposal.
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  Citi Newsroom reported MoFA's warning that delays to tomato seed and micro-irrigation support could cause farmers to miss planting seasons, and MyJoyOnline and Kumasi Mail repeated it. The Vaultz News did not mention this concern.
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  Citi Newsroom reported that MoFA wants funding for the Pwalugu project arranged in a way that leaves existing FSRP commitments untouched. MyJoyOnline and Kumasi Mail repeated this; The Vaultz News did not mention it.
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  The Vaultz News, drawing on a World Bank paper approved in 2025, said new financing of US$125.94 million lifted the cost of Ghana's project to US$291.71 million, against US$165.77 million before. It also said Bank records showed the Ghana component still marked as active on 25 September. Neither detail has appeared in other reports.
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  The Vaultz News said the Finance Ministry has not published its reasons for asking to withdraw, and none of the reports carries a response from Finance, so its position is unknown.

Why it matters for Ghana

The programme funds irrigation rehabilitation at Weta, Vea and Kpong as well as tomato support, so a long pause could leave farmers who depend on those schemes waiting through their planting calendar. Contractors already working under signed agreements face uncertainty about payment, and government may have to find GH₵643.87 million from other sources if the exit goes ahead. The exchange also shows two ministries publicly at odds over a project linked to the Feed Ghana drive.