The Chief Executive Officer of Oro Oil Ghana Limited, Dr Maxwell Commey, has urged the government to strategically deploy the US$500 million World Bank-backed oil palm development financing to promote decentralised production and inclusive economic growth.
He said the financing presented a significant opportunity to strengthen Ghana’s oil palm industry by expanding support for smallholder farmers, community-level processing and value-chain infrastructure across major producing areas.
Dr Commey noted that smallholder farmers already play a dominant role in Ghana’s palm oil industry, supplying a substantial share of fresh fruit bunches and crude palm oil.
“This World Bank facility offers a historic chance to build on Ghana’s smallholder-driven palm oil base by decentralising production and processing for sustainable, inclusive growth,” he said.
According to him, the financing should be structured to deliver commercial viability while generating employment, improving smallholder incomes and creating wider development opportunities across the oil palm value chain.
He argued that plans involving more than 100,000 hectares of plantations and the potential creation of more than 300,000 jobs would require participation beyond a few regions.
Dr Commey therefore advocated a shift from an exclusively large-estate model towards stronger smallholder participation, community-level processing mills and distributed value-chain infrastructure.
He said such an approach could create significant employment opportunities for women and young people in rural communities through small-scale processing, transportation, equipment maintenance, marketing and other related activities.
The proposed decentralised model, he said, could benefit communities in the Western, Central, Ashanti, Eastern, Volta, Oti and parts of the Bono East and Ahafo regions.
He added that stronger participation by smallholders would enable farmers to retain more value through own-processing or the sale of produce to nearby processing facilities.
Dr Commey also recommended the use of out-grower schemes to improve yields, strengthen farmer incomes and enhance household welfare.
He proposed that existing processing mills should be integrated into the programme, with about 70 percent of their capacity allocated to established operations and 30 percent reserved for smallholders and out-grower schemes.
He said decentralisation could also accelerate implementation within the planned 10-year period while helping the government secure additional land for sustainable plantation development through stronger partnerships with local communities.
Beyond employment and incomes, Dr Commey said expanding domestic oil palm production could improve food security and reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported palm oil, thereby helping to conserve foreign exchange.
Dr Commey called on the government, the TCDA, Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and private-sector stakeholders to prioritise inclusive and decentralised models in deploying the World Bank-backed financing to maximise its national economic impact.
