The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has launched the Ghana Agricultural Fund for Education and Transformation (GAFET), a national endowment aimed at mobilising sustainable financing for agricultural education and human capital development.
The Fund seeks to raise GH¢100 million by December 2028 to strengthen agricultural education, practical training, research and innovation, while attracting more young people into the sector.
The initiative seeks to address the low participation of young people in agricultural education, with only about two percent of tertiary students currently enrolled in agricultural programmes, despite agriculture’s significant contribution to the national economy.
Mr Steven Nhyira Odarteifio, Lead Coordinator of GAFET, said in a statement issued in Accra that the Fund would also help bridge an estimated annual funding gap of GH¢12 million faced by agricultural education institutions across the country.
Mr Eric Opoku, Minister of Food and Agriculture, described GAFET as a key human-capital pillar of the Government’s flagship Feed Ghana Programme, stressing that sustainable agricultural transformation depended on the quality of human resources available to the sector.
He called on commercial banks, pension funds, insurance companies, agribusinesses, development partners, philanthropic foundations and alumni associations to contribute to the Fund.
The contributions, he said, would support the development of laboratories, workshops, demonstration farms, scholarships and agricultural colleges.
The Minister said government had increased funding to agricultural colleges from GH¢35,000 to GH¢100,000 per institution, contributing to a 35 percent increase in enrolment.
He said GAFET had so far mobilised GH¢3.5 million in founding capital and was targeting GH¢10 million by December 2026 before growing the endowment to GH¢100 million by December 2028.
Mr Odarteifio explained that GAFET would pool contributions into a professionally managed endowment, with the principal capital preserved and invested, while annual returns would be used to finance approved priorities.
He said the Fund would support laboratories, demonstration farms, mechanisation, digital agriculture, research and innovation, agribusiness incubation and faculty development.
Those interventions, he said, would help bridge the gap between classroom learning and the practical skills required by the modern agricultural sector.
“GAFET will help ensure that graduates acquire the technical and entrepreneurial skills needed to participate effectively in a modern, technology-driven agricultural economy,” he said.
Mr Odarteifio therefore urged the private sector, financial institutions, development partners, alumni associations and individuals to support the initiative to create broad national ownership.
He said the launch marked the beginning of a long-term national effort to strengthen Ghana’s agricultural human capital and create a sustainable institution capable of benefiting generations.
GAFET 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.
The Fund is subsequently expected to become 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.
The returns from the endowment will support 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 the initiative as founding partners.
Stakeholders at the launch pledged their support towards attracting more young people into agriculture and equipping them with practical skills, modern technology and infrastructure.
