The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, Mr John Awuah, has cautioned that Ghana’s current economic stability could be at risk next year if the government fails to address long-standing weaknesses within the agricultural value chain.
Speaking in a radio interview on Joy FM on Thursday, November 13, 2025, Mr Awuah said the glut from this year’s bumper harvest, which has seen prices of major food staples fall sharply, is already turning into serious financial losses for farmers and the banks that supported them.
He described the development as a “paradox where good harvests have become a problem,” exposing the poor handling of Ghana’s agricultural produce after harvest.
“We are seeing a situation where a good harvest is now bringing a problem to the country,” he said. “Farmers are losing money, and if you are a bank that provided the funding, you are losing money. The farmer has done nothing wrong, but because we have not tackled the underlying problem within the agric value chain, when there’s good harvest, then there’s a problem; when there’s bad harvest, then there’s a problem. So when do we as a country gain?”
Mr Awuah warned that if the situation is not resolved, many farmers could lose confidence and stay away from farming next season, leading to food shortages and renewed inflationary pressures in 2026.
“The farmers who are having the glut now, next year they may not go to the farm and then we’re going to have shortage, and then inflation will take up. So it will be a cyclical effect of a problem for which we know the solution, except that we are failing as a country to tackle it from the ground up,” he said.
The banking sector head explained that the solution lies in creating a working post-harvest system that connects farmers, storage facilities, markets, and financial institutions.
He called for the establishment of a national warehousing receipt system, effective buffer stocking, and a reliable commodity exchange to stabilise prices and protect both farmers and lenders.
“We need to begin doing the heavy lifting of correcting those structural imbalances — making sure that we have a good warehousing receipt system, buffer stocking system, and a good commodity exchange system,” he said.
“If we reinforce the agric output to feed government infrastructure and integrate it well into the commodity exchange system, the banking sector can then plug in to provide further funding to farmers.”
Mr Awuah urged government to channel more agricultural produce into public sector procurement programmes, especially during bumper harvests, to prevent waste and sustain farmers’ incomes.
“There are government agencies that are even importing produce, yet we are experiencing gluts on staple items that perish within days. Why don’t we have a structure that allows government infrastructure projects to absorb local output?” he asked.
He added that resolving these issues would give banks more confidence to invest in agriculture. Currently, he said, the lack of clear market structures and post-harvest systems makes lending to the sector risky and unattractive.
“It’s difficult for banks to just step in and say, we are giving money to agric. But if we fix the structure, from agric to agribusiness, to wholesaling, buffer stocking, and back to agric — then cash flows properly, and banks can fund it sustainably,” he noted.
Mr Awuah also called on the Finance Minister to maintain fiscal discipline while consolidating the current stability and addressing the long-term weaknesses of the economy in the 2026 budget.
“Stability is the name of the game. But once we consolidate it, we must begin tackling the structural deficiencies that hold back growth and quality jobs,” he said.