The Director of Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness, Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor, has accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of misappropriating funds.

According to him, the monies meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) project went into private pockets instead of being invested in the program.

Speaking to GhanaWeb Business on the sidelines of the UPSA-IERPP Post Budget Forum in Accra on March 14, 2025, Otokunor stated that the PFJ did not achieve its intended purpose, as no jobs were created, nor was there an abundance of food in the country.

In an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante, he said, "We have realized that the investments that our friends made in agriculture in the past were investments that went into private pockets."

"Unfortunately, most of the implementations of their policies, like PFJ One and PFJ Two, we saw them planting for food and jobs, but the plant never turned into food, and it never turned into jobs. And so that means that the monies went somewhere," he added.

To address this, Otokunor explained that the government is combining two old models of input support to make the agricultural sector more robust.

He noted that the government will operate a 360-degree farmer service center. This initiative will prioritize the procurement of inputs at subsidized rates, access to a farmer credit system, and the training of farmers, among other measures.

The Nana Akufo-Addo administration spent GH¢2.9 billion on its flagship Planting for Food and Jobs program between 2017 and 2023.

The program aimed to ensure Ghana’s food security in grains such as rice, maize, soya, and sorghum; plantain, roots, and tubers like cassava and yam; as well as broiler production and processing.

SA/EK



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