Ghana’s services sector continues to drive economic expansion, while agriculture, despite employing a significant share of the workforce and contributing to export earnings, has struggled to maintain the growth momentum needed to strengthen its position in the economy.
The government is now looking to change that trajectory through a US$3 billion investment in commercial agriculture under its New Economy Programme, a four-year economic transformation initiative running from 2027 to 2030.
The commitment is intended to move agriculture towards a more commercially organised system, linking production to storage, processing, transportation and markets.The scale of the investment raises questions about whether it can lift agricultural productivity, accelerate the sector’s growth and narrow the gap with services, which has remained the economy’s dominant growth driver.
A Growing Gap Between Agriculture And Services
Recent economic data show the difference in the sectors’ performance. Ghana’s economy expanded by 6.0 per cent in real terms in the second quarter of 2026, but services grew by 8.0 per cent, compared with 3.9 per cent for agriculture.
Services accounted for 57.6 per cent of total GDP growth during the quarter, while agriculture contributed 13.3 per cent. The figures reflect the sector’s continued importance to economic expansion, even as agriculture remains a major source of employment and domestic production.
The gap was also evident in August 2026. The Ghana Statistical Service’s Monthly Indicator of Economic Growth showed services expanding by 10.7 per cent, compared with 2.6 per cent for agriculture. Services accounted for 69.9 per cent of overall growth during the month, while agriculture contributed just 6.8 per cent.
The figures point to a structural challenge. Although agriculture accounts for about 20 per cent of Ghana’s economy and nearly 40 per cent of employment, its contribution to recent economic expansion has remained below that of services.
What The US$3bn Investment Is Expected To Change
The government’s commercial agriculture pillar will focus on eight value chains: rice, sugar, poultry, maize and soya feed, aquaculture, oil palm, vegetables and cocoa value addition.
The programme proposes an integrated farm-to-market system connecting farmers to improved seeds, irrigation, mechanisation, storage facilities, processing factories, packaging, transportation and buyers.
The Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, said the investment would help build “a commercially organised agricultural economy”.
A major component is the rice industry, where the government plans to bring an additional 100,000 hectares under cultivation, targeting yields of five to six metric tonnes per hectare. The initiative is expected to create about 125,000 jobs.
The programme also targets sugar self-sufficiency by 2030, increased domestic poultry production and expanded aquaculture. In cocoa, the government intends to process at least 50 per cent of production locally by 2028 and 100 per cent by 2030.
These interventions could have implications beyond farming. Higher domestic production could supply raw materials to local processors, support manufacturing, create demand for transport and storage services, and reduce the country’s dependence on imported food.
The budget argues that the agricultural value chain extends into “transport, processing, packaging, trade and rural services”, suggesting that the economic benefits are expected to spread across several industries.
Can Agriculture Become a Stronger Growth Driver?
The proposed investment could help address some of the structural constraints that have held back agricultural productivity. However, the scale of funding alone will not determine whether agriculture can narrow its growth gap with the services sector.
Reliable irrigation, access to affordable financing, improved farm inputs, modern storage and dependable markets will be important to translating investment into higher output. Without these supporting systems, increased production could still expose farmers to post-harvest losses, weak prices and limited access to buyers.
The budget itself recognises the importance of connecting production to markets, warning that “production without storage creates gluts and losses”, while “processing without reliable supply creates idle factories”.
Implementation will therefore be as important as the financing commitment. The proposed projects must reach farmers, improve yields and establish commercially viable links between agricultural producers and processors.
Services is likely to remain a major driver of growth, especially with the continued expansion of information and communication activities. The focus, therefore, is not on overtaking services, but on making agriculture more productive and increasing its contribution to the economy.
