Reviving Ghana’s poultry sector: Role of government
Ghana’s quest to revive its poultry sector—a once-thriving engine of economic development—rests heavily on proactive, strategic, and sustained government leadership.
While the introduction of the “Akokɔ Nketenkete” Poultry Farm-to-Table Programme is commendable, the scale of Ghana’s poultry challenges requires a far more coordinated and comprehensive response.
Achieving an ambitious target such as replacing 25 per cent of poultry imports with local production is possible, but only through deliberate and systemic reforms.
A sector undermined by weak policy
Ghana’s poultry and broader livestock industry continue to be hampered by an outdated and poorly enforced policy regime.
Existing frameworks addressing animal health, feed inputs, meat inspection, and production standards are either obsolete or inconsistently applied.
Without a robust and modern policy foundation, the sector remains vulnerable to both internal inefficiencies and external shocks.
To create a level playing field, Ghana must consider implementing a managed trade policy that regulates all poultry imports—similar to South Africa’s approach.
Despite its production efficiency, South Africa still struggles with unfair competition from subsidized EU exports.
Ghana’s case is even more precarious and calls for clear import ceilings, developed with stakeholder consensus.
Redefining the “enabling environment”
The phrase “enabling environment” has become the go-to buzzword in development circles—tossed around at every workshop, yet barely unpacked. In Ghana’s agribusiness scene, it’s less a strategy and more a placeholder for what’s glaringly absent. So what does it mean in practice?
• Policy Consistency: Ending short-term, politically-driven initiatives and instituting a stable, long-term national poultry strategy.
• Affordable Financing: Beyond short-term funding schemes, the sector requires structured de-risking mechanisms and partnerships with financial institutions to provide customised financial products for actors across the value chain.
• Infrastructure Development: The poultry sector needs modern abattoirs, cold chain systems, efficient logistics, and consistent access to power and water. The government should create incentives for private sector investment in these areas.
• Human Capital and Research: Building a skilled poultry workforce and strengthening veterinary services must go hand-in-hand with R&D investments to improve genetics, feed conversion ratios, and disease resistance.
• Fair Market Competition: Strong safeguards are required to protect against the dumping of cheap, subsidised poultry products, which continually erode the competitiveness of local producers.
• Regulatory Enforcement: Enforcing strict and consistent quality standards across the value chain is vital to consumer confidence and market integrity.
• Land Access: The government, in collaboration with traditional leaders, should facilitate land access models where landowners contribute land as equity and benefit from fair returns.
Institutional coordination — The missing link
One of the impediments to progress in Ghana’s poultry sector is the persistent lack of coordination among key regulatory and implementing institutions.
While agencies such as the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Veterinary Services Directorate (VSD), and the Animal Production Directorate (APD) each play vital roles, their efforts are frequently disjointed.
The absence of a unified vision, coupled with overlapping mandates and poor inter-agency communication, significantly undermines policy coherence and implementation efficiency.
What is urgently needed is an integrated coordination mechanism underpinned by a shared strategic framework that harmonises their respective roles, fosters synergy, and enhances the impact of government interventions.
“Akoko nketenkete”: A Starting point, not the destination
With a budget of GH¢1.5 billion, the “Akokɔ Nketenkete” programme is designed to kickstart domestic poultry production, reduce import dependency, and create jobs. However, to truly transform the sector, the programme must be implemented with focus, transparency, and strategic prioritisation.
The goal of substituting 100,000 metric tonnes of poultry imports requires:
• Annual production of 66.7 million broilers
• Weekly processing of 1.28 million birds
• Supply of 1.35 million day-old chicks per week
• Weekly setting of 1.69 million fertile eggs (with 80% hatchability)
• Over 2 million eggs weekly (accounting for rejection)
• A breeder base of 527,000 broiler breeder females
• Annual feed requirement of 222,222 metric tonnes
• Maize requirement of 133,333 MT and soya meal of 77,778 MT
The programme must also ensure alignment with youth employment and rural development strategies.
Partnerships with youth-based agribusiness platforms and cooperatives can maximise the development impact and social return on investment.
Moreover, unlike Nigeria’s outright poultry import ban, Ghana can explore a quota-based import control system, ensuring both trade fairness and local industry protection.
The government must also prioritise input supply logistics, mechanised services, and investment in rural feeder roads to support smallholder participation.
Where the GH¢1.5bn should go?
1. Feed Production and Input Financing: Expand local maize and soya production, including youth engagement initiatives like SULIYA. Structured input financing models should integrate credit, insurance, and mechanisation.
2. National Breeding Programme and Hatchery Modernisation: Invest in a national breeding farm and upgrade hatcheries. Simultaneously, equip farmers with training in brooding, biosecurity and flock management.
3. Processing and Cold Chain Development: Establish certified abattoirs and cold storage through PPPs. Also invest in packaging, branding, and waste management infrastructure.
4. Skills Development and Digital Innovation: Create training programmes in poultry science and management, and deploy ICT solutions for disease tracking, production monitoring and market access.
5. Farmer Association Strengthening: Provide support for governance, financial management, leadership development, and advocacy capacity among poultry associations.
6. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: Allocate part of the funding to develop a real-time M&E system to track progress and adjust interventions based on impact metrics.
Govt role beyond finance
Real change will only occur when the government assumes the role of facilitator and enabler. Beyond funding, this includes:
• Enforcing local procurement quotas for poultry in schools, hospitals, prisons and military institutions.
• Providing tax incentives for investment in poultry infrastructure and inputs.
• Establishing a National Poultry Sector Coordination Council to drive implementation, monitor progress, and ensure accountability.
• Leveraging public procurement laws to support local producers and create guaranteed markets.
• Championing a poultry-specific window within the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL).
• Collaborating with the Bank of Ghana and Development Bank Ghana (DBG) to develop long-term financing solutions tailored to poultry enterprises.
Conclusion: Turning political will into sustainable action
Reviving Ghana’s poultry sector is no longer a matter of aspiration—it is a national imperative. The vision to substitute 25 per cent of poultry imports with domestic production is achievable, but only if the government moves from fragmented, short-term interventions to a bold, strategic, and coordinated policy regime.
The “Akokɔ Nketenkete” programme offers a starting point, but it must not become an end in itself.
To transform intent into impact, the government must lead with clarity, commit to inclusive planning, and catalyse private sector confidence through consistent policies, infrastructure investments, and institutional alignment.
Ghana’s poultry industry does not lack talent or ambition—it lacks the enabling ecosystem to thrive. The time has come for leadership to prioritise long-term productivity over short-term political gains, and that puts farmers, processors, and agribusinesses at the heart of economic renewal.
If we get this right, Ghana can build not only a resilient poultry industry but also a model for agribusiness-led industrialisation.