Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture is pushing for the government to reverse its decision to withdraw from the World Bank-backed West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), warning that existing contractual commitments worth GH¢643.87 million (approximately $46.5 million) and a range of agricultural projects could be put at risk.
Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku appealed in a letter to Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson after the Ministry of Finance informed the World Bank in late September of Ghana’s intention to withdraw from the programme. According to MoFA, the decision was taken without prior consultation with the Agriculture Ministry.
The amount already committed under the programme stands at GH¢643,867,633.36 (about $46.5 million). Of this, GH¢520.26 million (about $37.6 million) is linked to financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), while another GH¢123.61 million ($8.9 million) is connected to the FS2030 Trust Fund.
MoFA is warning that leaving the programme without an alternative financing arrangement would not necessarily eliminate Ghana’s existing obligations. Contracts already signed would still have to be addressed, potentially requiring the government to find funding from other sources. The ministry says this could cause delays, additional costs, and possible contractual claims if ongoing contracts are suspended or terminated.
The immediate consequences are already being felt. Following the withdrawal request, the World Bank directed the FSRP implementation team to pause activities and procurement financed through the IDA credit and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. Activities financed under a Norwegian grant, including tomato seed and micro-irrigation initiatives, were also directed to stop.
Among the agricultural infrastructure projects potentially affected are rehabilitation works at the Weta, Vea and Kpong irrigation schemes, as well as selected inland valleys. These investments are particularly important because irrigation infrastructure can influence the ability of farmers to produce beyond rainfall-dependent seasons and maintain more reliable agricultural output.
The disruption could also affect components connected to Ghana’s broader Feed Ghana agenda. MoFA said the pause is affecting activities related to farmer registration, digitisation, programme data analysis and support structures including the Feed Ghana Network Operation Centre and Feed Ghana Brigade. The ministry warned that delays could interfere with beneficiary identification, intervention targeting and field coordination.
The FSRP is a regional World Bank-backed programme designed to improve food-system resilience and agricultural productivity across participating West African countries. In Ghana, its interventions cover food production, climate resilience, irrigation, agricultural markets and digital advisory services. The programme's targeted value chains include maize, rice, soybeans and poultry, while its interventions also include tomato support, climate-smart agriculture, seed production, warehouses, market infrastructure and automated weather stations.
Ghana’s FSRP framework includes both national and regional objectives. The programme is intended to help vulnerable households and food systems withstand production and distribution shocks while supporting regional agricultural markets. Ghana's phase of the programme has a financing envelope of $100 million and was expected to run through December 2030 under the programme framework.
The disagreement therefore creates a difficult financing question for the government. If the withdrawal is maintained, Ghana would need to determine how existing contractual obligations are funded and how affected projects are completed. If the government reverses the decision, it would need to work with the World Bank to restore activities that have already been suspended and resolve the financing arrangements surrounding the programme.
MoFA is calling for the Finance Ministry to formally retract the withdrawal notice, seek written clearance from the World Bank for affected activities to resume, and allow both ministries to reconcile contractual commitments, payments due and projects affected by the decision.
The ministry is also urging that any funding arrangement being considered for other major agricultural projects, including the Pwalugu project, should not jeopardise Ghana’s existing FSRP commitments or the agricultural interventions already under implementation.
NBF Insight
The FSRP dispute highlights a less visible side of agricultural policy: the cost of stopping a programme can be very different from the cost of deciding not to start one.
Ghana is not dealing with an entirely uncommitted financing envelope. Contracts have already been entered into, infrastructure projects are underway, and farmers and implementing agencies have been working around programme timelines. A change in financing arrangements therefore has consequences beyond the headline value of the World Bank facility.
For Ghana’s agriculture sector, the bigger concern is continuity. Irrigation systems, seed programmes, farmer registration, climate-smart agriculture and market infrastructure require multi-year implementation. Interruptions can push projects beyond planting windows, delay farmer access to inputs and services, increase project costs and undermine the value of investments already made.
The government's next decision will therefore need to balance its broader fiscal and financing priorities against the cost of disrupting agricultural investments already under contract.
The GH¢643.87 million figure is not simply a financing headline. It represents commitments already embedded in Ghana’s agricultural development pipeline and the question now is how those commitments will be protected, funded and delivered.
