President John Dramani Mahama has pledged an end to Ghana’s recurring crop gluts — announcing a GH¢200 million allocation to the National Buffer Stock Company (NBSCo) to purchase surplus produce, and committing to roll out “24-hour Economy” model markets to all 261 districts nationwide.
Speaking on the concluding day of his “Resetting Ghana” tour of the Northern Region, Mahama cut the sod for a new 24-hour market at Bimbilla on Monday — a day after launching the flagship Kukuo market in Tamale — and sketched out a structural answer to the price collapses that have haunted Ghanaian farmers for years.
The Crop Glut Problem
Ghana’s agricultural cycle repeatedly produces surpluses of maize, rice, and groundnuts that farmers cannot sell at break-even prices. The current cycle has pushed maize prices below production cost in parts of the Northern, Savannah, and North East regions. Without state intervention, farmers absorb the loss.
The Fix
Three instruments now wired together:
- GH¢200 million to NBSCo — immediate, to buy surplus produce at floor prices
- Off-take to public institutions — secondary schools, hospitals, military barracks, prisons, and the Free Primary Healthcare programme will absorb the purchases
- 24-Hour Model Markets — every one of Ghana’s 261 districts will get a market featuring cold-chain storage, warehouses, healthcare facilities, security posts, and round-the-clock trading infrastructure
Scale
The Kukuo facility in Tamale, sod-cut Saturday, is the largest site. The Bimbilla market, sod-cut Monday, is the newest. Construction windows range 24–34 months. Government has indicated the first 50 district-level markets will be sequenced within 18 months; the remaining 211 will be rolled out over the subsequent three years.
Why This Matters
Mahama framed the policy as a direct answer to the question farmers in the region had put to him: “We grow the food — why do we lose money every year?” The Buffer Stock-plus-24-Hour-Market combination is the government’s structural answer: guaranteed off-take for surplus, plus round-the-clock marketplaces that extend trading windows beyond the single-shift retail day.
Reaction
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana welcomed the Buffer Stock commitment as the most concrete intervention in a decade. The Association of Ghana Industries said the 24-hour district rollout could materially deepen domestic supply chains if delivery discipline holds. Fiscal analysts flagged that the GH¢200 million allocation needs to be tracked line-by-line in the next quarterly budget review to avoid leakage.
Source: Office of the President / Rainbow Radio / GBC Ghana Online
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