Ghana’s proposed withdrawal from the World Bank-backed West Africa Food System Resilience Programme has opened a new fiscal and food-security question after the Ministry of Food and Agriculture warned that GH¢643.87 million in existing contractual commitments could be exposed.
In a September 28 letter to Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku asked for an urgent reversal of the withdrawal request sent to the World Bank on September 23. MoFA says the decision was made without prior consultation with the implementing ministry and has already triggered a pause in programme activities.
The issue is not simply whether Ghana remains in an agricultural project. It is whether withdrawing after contracts have been awarded transfers costs expected to be financed through concessional credit and grants back onto the national budget, while delaying irrigation and food-production investments the government is pursuing through Feed Ghana.
Contracted Commitments Raise Fiscal Exposure
According to MoFA, GH¢643,867,633.36 in obligations have already been incurred under the programme. Of that amount, GH¢520.26 million relates to International Development Association financing, while GH¢123.61 million is linked to the Food Systems 2030 Trust Fund.
The ministry warns that if the withdrawal proceeds without alternative financing, government may have to meet the commitments from other resources. That could create delays, additional costs or contractual claims, turning a project-financing decision into a public-finance issue.
The scale of the programme is larger than earlier descriptions suggest. A World Bank additional-financing paper approved in 2025 raised Ghana’s project cost from US$165.77 million to US$291.71 million after US$125.94 million in new financing was added. Of the increase, US$125 million was additional IDA credit and US$0.94 million was grant support for climate-smart tomato production.
World Bank financing data still listed the Ghana component as active as of September 25. The September 23 withdrawal request should therefore not be treated as a completed cancellation. The dispute is over whether government should proceed and how already-contracted obligations would be handled.
Irrigation And Feed Ghana Activities Face Delays
The World Bank’s September 24 pause, as described in MoFA’s letter, affects activities under the IDA credit and recipient-executed trust funds. MoFA identified rehabilitation works at Weta, Vea and Kpong irrigation schemes, as well as selected inland-valley projects, among interventions that could be disrupted.
The pause also reaches tomato seed and micro-irrigation activities and several Feed Ghana support functions, including farmer registration, digitisation and recruitment. Irrigation and reliable farmer data influence planting decisions, targeting of inputs, dry-season production and the ability to monitor whether public support reaches intended beneficiaries.
The timing is sensitive. The FSRP has already supported Ghana’s dry-season tomato production through improved seed, irrigation and market linkages. Previous coverage has examined the programme’s effort to stabilise domestic tomato supply, while a separate Feed Ghana irrigation initiative launched this week seeks to reduce farmers’ dependence on rainfall.
Interrupting those systems could weaken production channels the government is relying on to improve food availability and reduce seasonal price pressure.
Food Security Meets Public Investment Discipline
There is a broader policy tension. Ghana needs tighter control over public investment commitments after years in which projects were started without sufficient financing or accumulated arrears. Cancelling, rescoping or rephasing low-value projects can strengthen fiscal discipline.
But effective project rationalisation also requires coordination between the ministry controlling the budget and the ministry responsible for implementation. Where contracts already exist, the economic question is not only how much financing can be cancelled, but what liabilities remain and whether unfinished assets create a higher cost later.
The FSRP is designed to strengthen preparedness against food insecurity, improve the resilience of agricultural production and support regional food markets. Its irrigation, climate-resilience and digital components are therefore linked to productivity and food-price stability.
For households, that connection matters because food-price shocks can quickly reverse recent disinflation gains when they affect staples and vegetables. For government, the question is whether withdrawing from concessional financing saves fiscal resources or merely changes the source from which existing commitments must be paid.
MoFA has asked the Finance Ministry to reconcile outstanding commitments and affected activities before further engagement with the World Bank. Until Finance publishes its rationale for the withdrawal request, it would be premature to conclude that the decision is either fiscally beneficial or fiscally costly.
What is clear is that the choice carries a measurable fiscal exposure. The next step should establish whether Ghana can preserve projects with the highest economic return, settle legitimate contractual obligations without creating new arrears, and maintain food-production investments needed for the wider agricultural strategy.
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