The Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry has started the process to develop the country’s first ever National Agribusiness Policy.

The policy, expected to be completed in two months, will provide the blueprint to make agribusiness a driver of industrialisation and economic growth, employment creation and food security.

Consequently, the ministry is set to host an agribusiness stakeholder dialogue to engage key stakeholders in the agribusiness ecosystem to generate recommendations on the thematic areas to serve as the foundation for drafting the national policy on agribusiness.

The sector Minister, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, told the Daily Graphic that the dialogue, slated for July 24 this year, would identify policy, institutional, financial and operational priorities to support the transformation of agribusiness into a driver of industrialisation and economic growth.

“The country does not have a proper agribusiness policy. We do bits and pieces of things in relation to agribusiness, so this is going to be the first of its kind.

“Therefore, we want it to be carefully thought through, represent the needs of the people, to solve a problem so that we get the results we want,” the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry said.

Ms Ofosu-Adjare said although agribusiness had been around for while, it had not received the needed high-level attention, hence the intention of assembling the stakeholders for them to make inputs that mattered to the sector.

He said President John Dramani Mahama signed the Civil Service (Ministries) Instrument, 2025 (E.I. 1) on January 9 this year to realign the Ministry of Trade and Industry, introducing agribusiness as a sub-sector to receive the needed attention.

“So, we are bringing the stakeholders together so that they themselves will tell us what works and what aligns with the government’s policy, so that at the end of the day, we will get a policy that speaks to issues,” Ms Ofosu-Adjare stated.

The stakeholder dialogue towards the drafting of a National Agribusiness Policy will be on the theme: “Resetting Agribusiness for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Growth”.

With President Mahama set to deliver the keynote address, the dialogue would attract representatives from academia, agribusiness practitioners, development partners,  finance institutions, banks with agribusiness desks, manufacturers and exporters.

There will also be representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Food and Agriculture, Environment, Science and Technology; the National Development Planning Commission, the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority, the Food and Drugs Authority and agriculture insurance providers.

The Venture Capital Trust Fund, impact and angel investors, pension funds, agri-processors, logistics providers, the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, large scale and smallholder producer organisations, cooperative and agro-schemes among others are expected to participate.

Ms Ofosu-Adjare said the national stakeholder dialogue would also form the basis for further engagements, with other segments of the ecosystem all geared towards formulating a rounded agribusiness policy that would be workable, feasible, solve challenges and be a conduit for supplying raw material to the industrial sector.

Mrs Ofosu-Adjare explained that the policy would solve the commonest challenge of supplying raw materials to agribusinesses.

“The major challenge of agribusiness is the production of raw material. It will surprise you to know that we produce only 10 per cent of our raw material needs in Ghana,” she said, stating that it was time the country used what it was endowed with, such as arable land, to produce its own raw materials.

She said the policy, for instance, would ensure that the right quantity and quality of raw materials would be produced to support agribusiness ventures.

“Once we are able to come out with a policy that motivates people to invest in that area, we will be able to produce a lot of raw materials and reduce our import of raw materials.

“It will also help in import substitution because most of the things that we consume here are imported,” Mrs Ofosu-Adjare stated.

The Trade, Agribusiness and Industry Minister said the policy would also have incentives to attract private participation in raw material production but the specifics would be left for the Ministry of Finance to finalise.

Form

The national stakeholder dialogue for the agribusiness policy would feature presentations on thematic areas such as regulation, industrial coordination, finance and investment, agro-industrialisation, value chain development as well as youth and women empowerment in agribusiness.

Other areas would be environmental sustainability, climate resilience and market access.

“Ghana is the headquarters of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). To enable us to take advantage of this, we need to take agribusiness seriously because  value addition is the way to go.

“If you are doing value addition, rules of origin will be catered for, because we are producing the raw materials here, adding value and exporting, so that it will be very beneficial to us,” Mrs Ofosu-Adjare added.