- West Africa Must Turn Rice Deficit Into Economic Opportunity — Deputy Finance Minister
West Africa must urgently shift from importing rice to financing its own production if the region is to strengthen food security, create jobs and protect its economies from external shocks, Ghana’s Deputy Finance Minister, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, has said.
Speaking at the opening of the West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable in Accra, Mr Ampem warned that the region continues to spend between $3 billion and $4 billion annually on rice imports, despite possessing the land, water resources and agricultural expertise needed to achieve self-sufficiency.
“Why should a region so passionate about rice still spend billions importing it every year?” he asked. “That is billions in foreign exchange leaving our economies each year to finance demand that we should increasingly be meeting ourselves.”
Representing Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Deputy Minister described the situation as both “economically unsustainable” and “strategically untenable”, arguing that dependence on imported rice weakens domestic value chains, drains scarce foreign exchange reserves and leaves countries vulnerable to disruptions in global supply chains.
In remarks that blended humour with economic reality, Mr Ampem referenced the long-standing rivalry among West African countries over whose jollof rice is superior.
“We often passionately debate whose jollof tastes better,” he said. “But beyond the humour lies a serious economic question. The real jollof competition before us is not whose rice tastes better — even though we know Ghana’s is the best. It is whether West Africa can finally produce enough rice to feed itself competitively.”
The Deputy Minister argued that unlocking the region’s rice potential would require a new approach to financing centred on what he described as “transformational capital.”
Such capital, he said, must go beyond traditional agricultural financing and support investments in irrigation systems, storage facilities, milling operations, logistics infrastructure and agro-processing industries.
“Transformational capital means more than money,” Mr Ampem said. “It means patient capital that funds irrigation, not just seasonal inputs. It means risk-tolerant capital that invests in storage, milling, logistics and processing, not just commodity trading.”
He also called for investors and policymakers to view the rice industry through a regional lens rather than as a collection of fragmented national markets.
“It means strategic regional capital that sees a West African rice economy, not fragmented national markets separated by borders,” he said. “That is the scale of ambition this moment demands.”
According to him, the rice agenda should not be treated only as an agricultural initiative, but as a broader economic transformation strategy capable of generating industries, exports, employment and macroeconomic stability.
“Rice is not only about feeding the region,” he said. “It is about creating industries, jobs, incomes, exports and regional macroeconomic resilience.”
Mr Ampem said Ghana’s ongoing economic recovery programme under President John Dramani Mahama is repositioning agriculture and strategic value chains as central pillars of economic transformation.
He noted that efforts to strengthen agricultural value chains, improve market coordination, support agro-processing and maintain macroeconomic stability were helping create a more attractive environment for investors.
“Ghana’s message to investors is straightforward,” he said. “We are doing the policy work. We are strengthening the enabling environment. We are creating the conditions for long-term capital to thrive. The Government of Ghana is clearing the path; now we need partners to walk it with us.”
The Deputy Minister stressed that opportunities across West Africa’s rice value chain are substantial, with the potential to generate millions of jobs, particularly for women and young people.
However, he cautioned that success would require more than policy declarations.
“West Africa does not need more declarations,” he said. “We need pipelines of bankable projects capable of crowding in long-term capital at scale.”
He urged governments, development finance institutions and private investors to align policies, infrastructure development, financing mechanisms and trade systems to support a competitive regional rice industry.
“The time for talking about West Africa’s rice potential is over,” Mr Ampem said. “The time for financing it is now.”
The roundtable, jointly organised by regional institutions, development partners and multilateral lenders, is expected to focus on mobilising investment into rice production, processing and value-chain infrastructure as part of a broader effort to enhance food security and economic resilience across West Africa.
For the region, the challenge is no longer whether rice demand exists. It clearly does. The real question is whether West Africa can build the financing structures, infrastructure and regional coordination needed to turn that demand into production, jobs and industrial value.
As Mr Ampem put it, the region must now “turn West Africa’s rice gap into West Africa’s rice gain.”
