Ghana has moved a step closer to reviving its ailing poultry industry after UK-based agrifood investment firm Agrium Capital signed an addendum to advance $270 million in funding, a deal designed to slash the country’s $400 million annual import bill for chicken and create 12,000 direct jobs.
The agreement was signed with the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme (24H+) in London on Thursday, October 22, 2026, following the Heads of Terms signed in Accra on August 22. Partners including Petra Trust, Axis Pension Trust and Ghana EXIM Bank witnessed the ceremony, which ushers the project into its next phase of technical and investment development .
A Structural Deficit
The scale of the challenge facing Ghana’s poultry sector is stark. Ghanaians consume roughly 340,000 tonnes of chicken annually, but domestic production meets only a fraction of that demand, with about 270,000 tonnes arriving frozen from abroad at a cost of close to $400 million in foreign exchange each year . Self-sufficiency has collapsed from close to 80 per cent a generation ago to about 12 per cent today .
Successive governments have attempted to reverse the decline. In November 2025, President John Dramani Mahama launched the Nkoko Nkitikiti initiative, a household and backyard poultry programme under the broader Poultry Industry Revitalization Programme . The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has acknowledged that Ghana produces only 4.6 per cent of its poultry needs locally . The new $270 million investment represents a significantly larger, private-sector-led intervention.
Integrated Value Chain
The project will span the entire poultry value chain: feed production, breeding, hatchery operations, broiler production, processing, cold chain, logistics and market access . The first phase is projected to produce 20,000 tonnes of dressed and processed broiler products annually, scalable to 50,000 tonnes . To support this, the first phase will establish 15,000 acres of maize and 15,000 acres of soya to feed 15 million birds .
Presidential Adviser on the 24H+ Programme, Augustus Goosie Tanoh, described the agreement as a practical example of blending foreign private capital with Ghanaian institutional capital to build industry at scale .
“The project is to create income that belongs to Ghanaian farmers, feed millers, processors and haulage drivers, who are paid instead of someone else’s economy far from our shores,” Mr. Tanoh said at the earlier signing in Accra .
Pension Funds Deploy Long-Term Capital
The participation of Petra Trust and Axis Pension Trust signals a shift in how Ghana’s pension sector views productive investment. Petra Trust Managing Director Kofi D. Fynn said the pension sector was ready to deploy long-term capital into ventures that support national development.
“We are ready to put our capital to work in support of the goals and objectives of this country,” he said .
Agrium Capital, a subsidiary of Asset Green Ltd, will lead the technical development. CEO Rod Bassett said the project would be implemented through a proprietary design process expected to take 10 to 12 months, with rollout in three phases closely integrated with surrounding rural communities .
UK-Ghana Cooperation
The UK has welcomed the investment as a boost to UK-Ghana trade and economic cooperation. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which hosted the August signing in Accra, has been cited as a catalytic partner in bringing together international investors, domestic institutional capital and government around the programme .
The deal forms part of the broader 24H+ programme, which the government says is on track to create 1.7 million productive jobs by 2028. The National Poultry Programme is among several flagship initiatives backed by private capital that Mr. Tanoh said are “in motion now” .
For Ghana’s poultry farmers, the immediate challenge will be whether the promised investment translates into competitive domestic production against frozen imports that have historically undercut local prices. The addendum signed in London moves the project from framework to project preparation, but the first birds are still some months away.
