Prof. Opoku-Agyemang: Treat Rice as Economic Asset to Cut Africa’s $50bn Food Import Bill

Vice President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang says West Africa must treat rice as a strategic economic asset and urgently scale up investment to cut the region’s heavy reliance on imports.

Addressing the West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable in Accra on Tuesday, she said Africa spends over $50 billion each year on food imports, with rice making up a large portion of that bill.

“Rice has become one of the most consumed staples across West Africa. With demand rising rapidly, West Africa alone imports millions of tonnes of rice every year,” Prof. Opoku-Agyemang noted.

She argued that the issue goes beyond simply growing more rice. The real task, she said, is raising enough capital to shift agriculture from subsistence to commercial production and to build integrated value chains.

“The challenge before us is not just about growing more rice, but also about mobilising the scale of capital required to transform agriculture from a subsistence sector into commercial production, and from fragmented production into integrated value chains,” she said.

According to the Vice President, boosting local rice output will strengthen food security, create jobs, and reduce import dependence across the sub-region.

“West Africa must therefore see rice as a strategic economic asset,” she added.