🇬🇭 West Africa seeks to cut rice imports with $3.5bn investment push

West Africa consumes 22m to 24m tonnes of milled rice annually but produces only about 60% of demand, leaving the region with an annual rice import bill of more than $3.5bn, a figure the World Bank has put as high as $5bn. At the West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable convened in Accra in June by the ECOWAS Commission, the Government of Ghana and the World Bank, ministers from 14 countries endorsed the Accra Declaration and about $1.5bn in early public and development financing was pledged.

The article says rice demand in West Africa is growing by 3% to 4% a year, while production has lagged despite major irrigable potential in the Senegal River Valley, Mali’s Office du Niger and Nigeria. It also notes that India’s 2023 rice export curbs triggered price increases across the sub-region.

#Ghana

🔸 Source

@africaintel