The Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI) Activity

Nathan Associates, Inc. is part of Cadmus. Original publication date: February 23, 2023.

Improving the Fortunes and Future of Ghana’s Agricultural Sector

The path to prosperity for Ghana starts with agriculture. Historically, the sector has formed the foundation of the country’s economy, but Ghana has yet to fully exploit its agricultural resources to modernize and commercialize in ways that promote growth, inclusivity, and trade.

Nathan is striving to change that. By implementing the United States Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI) Activity, Nathan is at the forefront of improving the fortunes and future of Ghana’s agricultural sector.

The five-year, $35 million project is working closely with the Government of Ghana to achieve agricultural success in five key ways:

• Improving the quality standards of Ghana’s food crops, to better prepare them for high-value markets and export
• Reducing the time and cost of trade
• Increasing investment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with the help of Business Development Service providers
• Developing innovative ideas for investment, including non-traditional financing instruments
• Connecting SMEs to major players in the industry and increasing investment opportunities for established firms

Hitting the ground even before the COVID-19 pandemic was over, GTI managed to engage with key stakeholders quickly, establish excellent working relationships with the Government of Ghana and other crucial partners, and establish an agile activity structure to respond flexibly to landscape changes, adapt to evolving USAID themes and priorities, and take rapid advantage of market opportunities.

GTI collaborates closely with the Government of Ghana and private sector stakeholders to diversify agricultural exports and improve their quality; strengthen Small and Medium Enterprises and their support systems; streamline trading procedures; and improve conditions for transactions, investment, and finance. All together, these improvements hope to boost the country’s economic growth, including national GDP and household income for average Ghanaian citizens.

Nathan is also proud of GTI’s specific mandate to support job creation for women, youth, and people with disabilities, recognizing the need to make up for these lost market advantages and opportunities.

GTI works in the cowpeas, groundnuts, mango, shea, cashew, maize, pineapple, soybean, and vegetable sectors.

GTI focuses on the following five (5) Objectives:

Objective 1: Improving and Enforcing Quality Standards in Domestic Value Chains

GTI works with relevant government partners and the private sector to improve the quality of selected high-value agricultural goods and products by strengthening traceability systems that can trace products from their origin through the supply chain, isolate threats and recall contaminated products, and by incentivizing small and medium enterprises to be aware and use these systems. The work helps ensure that local sanitary and phytosanitary certification standards are enforced and aligned at both the national and international level, bringing more of Ghana’s agricultural products to the world at the prices they deserve.

Objective 2: Reducing the Time and Cost of Moving Goods across Borders

GTI is assisting the customs unit of Ghana’s revenue agency to bring down the cost and time of securely moving imports and exports to and from Ghana.  The team is helping the Government of Ghana institute an effective integrated management system, streamline procedures in clearing goods, and engage the relevant public and private stakeholders to make and enforce better policies. The activity is also harmonizing Ghana’s trade and investments programs with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) policies in collaboration with Ghana’s Trade and Industry Ministry and the National Coordination Office of AfCFTA. Through these efforts, GTI is helping Ghana’s standards organization, policies, and systems match up with the requirements of international policies to keep trade flowing and efficient. GTI intentionally engages women, youth, and persons with disabilities in its work to empower them to be effective in their different roles. This results in increasing the access and capacity of women and other disadvantaged groups to overcome historic discrimination and ensure they can participate fully in trade.

Objective 3: Increasing Investment, especially among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

GTI is fostering the growth and expansion of Small and Medium Enterprises by matching them with Business Development Service (BDS) providers, private sector support institutions, business associations, and financial services providers; improving access to credit; addressing the root causes of under-investment in agriculture; and building the capacity of marginalized populations to participate more fully in agribusiness and trade. By matching small companies with the right BDS providers, GTI is helping small businesses address their individual weakness and leverage their company’s strengths to increase growth and sales.

Objective 4: Developing Distinct and Innovative Ideas for Investment

Without access to credit, growth and innovation stall. GTI supports Ghana’s agriculture sector by developing distinct and innovative finance opportunities for firms in the agriculture sector as well as by addressing structural and regulatory impediments to investments.  The activity also strengthens the capacity of local institutions and incentivizes firms with innovation financing instruments to support SMEs to access trade and finance.

Objective 5: Scaling up Programmatic Interventions and Increasing Firm-Level Interventions

GTI works in partnership with existing stakeholders in the agriculture sector to increase investment opportunities for bankable firms and export-ready businesses. The activity also aims to scale up the size of investment opportunities for firms already completing business transactions valued in excess of $2 million per firm. Successful large-scale firms improve the health of the entire sector: increasing consistent demand, quality standards, financing, and market access across the board.