The National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) says it is yet to receive GH¢200 million pledged in the 2026 national budget to expand grain purchases from farmers, as stockpiles of surplus locally produced rice continue to mount across the country.
Emmanuel Arthur, Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs at NAFCO, disclosed on Tuesday during an interview on Accra-based Citi FM that the agency has so far operated on GH¢100 million released by the government in 2025, with the additional budgetary allocation still pending disbursement from the Ministry of Finance.
Arthur said purchases are still ongoing using the 2025 funds and that the allocation had not been exhausted. “The buying is still ongoing. We are left with a little, but we are still buying. As we speak, we have people on the ground purchasing,” he said.
The funding gap is significant. NAFCO has estimated that it requires at least GH¢770 million to absorb the full volume of surplus produce sitting with farmers, far exceeding the combined GH¢300 million in allocations announced so far.
The February 2026 Food Security Monitor report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) flagged that all functional NAFCO warehouses and private aggregator facilities are now full, leaving no fallback storage option for surplus grain yet to be purchased. The report also warned that prolonged storage is degrading rice quality, increasing breakage during milling and reducing its marketability.
The crisis has sharpened pressure on the government to act. The Association of Ghana Rice Producers and Processors has warned that over one million farmers are overwhelmed by losses, with the situation posing a serious threat to the sustainability of the local rice industry and raising the risk of an unemployment crisis in the sector.
Arthur rejected allegations from the producers’ association that NAFCO has defied a presidential directive to prioritise locally produced rice. He stated that all grain purchased by the company has come from Ghanaian farmers, working through licensed buying companies that procure on NAFCO’s behalf and deliver to warehouses in Buipe, parts of the Bono and Ashanti regions, Jute in the Volta Region, and Tamale.
President John Dramani Mahama on March 5, 2026, directed that rice procurement for schools be centralised under NAFCO, with priority given to locally produced rice for the School Feeding Programme and Free Senior High School. Arthur clarified that the GH¢100 million allocation is for the national food reserve, which is separate from the Free SHS supply chain, though both programmes require the use of local rice.
Arthur added that the World Food Programme is supporting NAFCO to rehabilitate storage facilities ahead of further purchases.
The situation has exposed a tension between stated government policy and the pace of fund disbursements, with farmers warning that continued delays could force production cuts in the next farming season, potentially turning the current surplus into a future shortage.
