Ghana launched its AgriConnect Compact on Tuesday in Accra, backed by the World Bank Group, as part of a regional drive to overhaul West Africa’s rice economy and reduce the continent’s dependence on imports by 2035.
The launch took place on the sidelines of the two-day West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable, which brought together ministers, 15 country delegations, investors, agribusiness leaders, and technical experts. The event was organised under the AgriConnect Initiative, convened by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the World Bank Group, and the African Development Bank (AfDB), and hosted by the Government of Ghana.
The compact places agriculture at the centre of Ghana’s economic transformation agenda. It targets the creation of more than 2.6 million jobs, improved food and nutrition security for nearly three million people, and a $3.5 billion investment programme over five years. Priority value chains include rice, maize, cocoa, oil palm, and poultry, supported by reforms designed to raise productivity and draw in private capital.
The initiative takes a systems approach that combines irrigation, mechanisation, climate-smart agriculture, and digital innovation, signalling Ghana’s intent to shift farming from subsistence-level activity to integrated, market-led production.
Vice-President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang framed the stakes clearly at the roundtable: “We must therefore also see rice as a strategic economic asset.”
The broader roundtable concluded with a consensus that demand for rice across West Africa is outpacing local production, and that large, coordinated investment is urgently needed. Participants identified irrigation, seed systems, machinery, milling, storage, transport, and trade as priority areas across the rice value chain. They also backed the creation of a Regional Rice Investment Compact and called for stronger use of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory to coordinate follow-up action.
ECOWAS Commission president Dr. Omar Alieu Touray called on participants to use the roundtable as a springboard for action, stressing the need to strengthen investor confidence and accelerate financing for commercially viable projects.
World Bank Group Vice-President for Planet Guangzhe Chen said Ghana’s compact demonstrates how the regional agriculture agenda can deliver jobs and inclusive growth at scale. AfDB Director for Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Richard Ofori-Mante added that the rice value chain holds significant potential for Africa’s youth across services, processing, logistics, and digital agriculture.
Ghana’s compact, if fully funded and executed, would represent one of the most ambitious country-level agricultural investment programmes in West Africa in recent years, and positions Accra as a model for how national strategies can align with the region’s self-sufficiency goals ahead of the 2035 deadline.
