By Edward Dankwah, GNA
Accra, Aug. 12, GNA– The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has launched the Ghana Agricultural Fund for Education and Transformation (GAFET), a national endowment aimed at securing sustainable financing for agricultural education and human capital development.
GAFET seeks to address the imbalance between agriculture’s contribution to the economy and the low participation of young people in agricultural education, with only about two per cent of tertiary students enrolled in agricultural programmes.
A statement issued in Accra by Mr Steven Nhyira Odarteifio, Lead Coordinator of GAFET said the Fund would also help address an estimated annual funding gap of GH¢12 million faced by agricultural education institutions across the country.
The event was attended by development partners, financial institutions, agribusiness leaders, traditional authorities, students,and the media.
Mr Eric Opoku, the Minister of Food and Agriculture described GAFET as a human-capital pillar of the government’s flagship Feed Ghana programme, saying sustainable agricultural transformation depended on the quality of the sector’s human resources.
He called on commercial banks, pension funds, insurance companies, agribusinesses, development partners, philanthropic foundations and alumni associations to support the Fund through contributions towards laboratories, workshops, demonstration farms, scholarships and agricultural colleges.
The Minister said the government had increased funding to agricultural colleges from GH¢35,000 to GH¢100,000 per institution, contributing to a 35 per cent increase in enrolment.
He said GAFET had mobilised GH¢3.5 million in founding capital and aimed to grow the Fund to GH¢10 million by December 2026 and GH¢100 million by December 2028.
Mr Odarteifio said the Fund would pool contributions into a professionally managed endowment, with the capital preserved and invested while annual returns financed approved priorities.
He said the Fund would support laboratories, demonstration farms, mechanisation, digital agriculture, research and innovation, agribusiness incubation and faculty development to bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical agricultural needs.
Mr Odarteifio said GAFET would help ensure that graduates acquired the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to participate effectively in a modern, technology-driven agricultural economy.
He called for increased participation from the private sector, financial institutions, development partners, alumni associations and individuals to establish broad national ownership of the Fund.
Mr Odarteifio said the launch marked only the beginning of a long-term national effort to build an institution that would strengthen Ghana’s agricultural human capital and benefit generations yet unborn.
The Fund is expected to transition into a full endowment structure in the fourth quarter of 2026, with a governing board, fund administrator, fund manager and custodian bank, before eventually becoming a statutory institution established by an Act of Parliament.
Initially, GAFET will support 21 agricultural education institutions, comprising five standalone agricultural colleges and 16 universities and technical universities, with returns supporting practical training, mechanisation, research, digital agriculture, agribusiness incubation, faculty development and scholarships.
Five Ghanaian-led agribusinesses—AgriSolve, GrowForMe, New Age Agric Solutions, Tradeline Consult and Farmerline have joined GAFET as founding partners, with stakeholders pledging support to attract young people into agriculture and equip them with practical skills, technology and modern infrastructure.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo