Accra, Sept. 9, GNA – The Fidelity Bank Ghana has urgedstakeholders to prioritise financing Ghana’s entire agriculturevalue chain to maximise wealth creation.
The Bank said the nation’s quest for agricultural self-reliance would be better achieved by capturing more value from what was already being produced than by simply increasing production.
The call was made at the Ghana Horticulture Expo 2026, held under the theme: “From Soil to Sovereignty: Building Ghana’s Agricultural Self-Reliance Through Innovation”, where Fidelity Bank participated in multiple sessions as a long-standing partner of the event.
Delivering an address on behalf of Mr Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, Mr John-Paul Taabavi, Divisional Director for Corporate and Institutional Banking, said Ghana’s agricultural exports generated about US$710 million in 2025, while cocoa paste alone generated about US$789 million during the same period.
“Both were produced from the same soil, the same country, the same growing season,” Mr Taabavi said. “Yet the value of a single product exceeded the value of an entire category of agricultural exports. The difference lies largely in what happens after the harvest.”
He said agricultural sovereignty did not mean producing everything domestically, but rather controlling more of the value Ghana created, retaining more income within the economy and ensuring that more Ghanaian businesses participated in the wealth generated.
With non-traditional exports reaching about US$5 billion in 2025 and Ghanaian products reaching 152 countries, Mr Taabavisaid the challenge was not a lack of demand, but the country’s capacity to move beyond production into aggregation, processing and value addition.
He identified gaps in cold storage, aggregation, processing, packaging, logistics, quality standards, certification, reliable energy and access to appropriate finance as major constraints to unlocking the full potential of the sector.
Mr Taabavi also challenged conventional perceptions of agricultural risk, arguing that some risks could be reduced through better financing structures.
“We often say agriculture is risky. But is agriculture inherently risky or are we sometimes creating risk through the way we choose to finance it?” he asked.
He advocated financing models structured around production cycles, verified transactions, credible off-take agreements and warehouse receipts, rather than relying solely on traditional collateral.
Mr Taabavi pointed to the Fidelity Export Club, established in 2023 in partnership with the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters (FAGE), as an example of the bank’s value-chain approach.
The initiative now supports more than 400 exporters and farmers through the BRIDGE-in-Agriculture programme, implemented with the Mastercard Foundation, as well as the bank’s broader SME financing channels.
Fidelity Bank has disbursed more than GH¢160 million to FAGE members, while by the end of July 2026, businesses within the Bank’s SME portfolio had generated approximately US$40 million in foreign exchange inflows.
He said Fidelity Bank, which had partnered the Ghana Horticulture Expo since its inception, remained committed to supporting value chains that created jobs, expanded exports and promoted shared prosperity.
“Sovereignty is not created at the farm gate. It is created when innovation, investment and enterprise transform what comes from our soil into lasting national prosperity,” he said.
Mr Alex Amponsah-Agyei, Director of SME Banking, said the Bank was deliberately working to de-risk agricultural lending through partnerships with the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL), the eco.business Fund, the Mastercard Foundation and Development Bank Ghana.
He said the collaborations had enabled the Bank to provide financing at a total cost of seven per cent under the MastercardFoundation’s BRIDGE-in-Agriculture initiative and to accept farmland as security, representing a departure from traditional lending practices.
“If you want to look at farming and aggregation and export, then you need to look at the entirety of the value chain,” he said.
“It cannot be that you have funded the customer, the goods get to the port, and suddenly there is a letter of credit issue.”
Mr James Orraca-Tetteh, Head of SME Segment Banking, said partnerships were essential to reshaping how financial institutions supported exporters and agribusinesses.
“Where we are going, we have to be more creative than the traditional way, and that is what some of these partnerships offer,” he said.
He cited the Fidelity Young Entrepreneurs Fund as an example of ring-fenced concessionary financing combined with structured capacity building to support young people and women in agribusiness.
GNA
Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage