A former President of Ghana, John Mahama, has stated that Ghana’s food inflation stands at 122%, the highest rate in the world currently.
According to him, the country’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs programme which was highly spoken of by the government has been mismanaged.
He wrote on his official page on November 4, 2022, “Ghana has the highest food inflation in the world at 122%, notwithstanding the much-touted but grossly mismanaged Planting for Food & Jobs programme.”
The former president also bemoaned the low patronage of the government’s financial instrument as T-bills remain undersubscribed.
“We are grappling with t-bill rates of about 30% as local investors in financial instruments suffer huge risks,” he added.
A World Bank report has revealed that Ghana is number one among countries with the highest food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa since January 2022.
According to the World Bank’s October 2022, Africa Pulse Report, food prices have been on the rise since January 2022 by 122%.
The report noted that Ghana has experienced very rapid food price increases this year, breaching the “inflation ceiling of the central bank target bands for all countries with an explicit nominal anchor.”
Ghana’s inflation has been largely influenced by food, transportation, and fuel.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the country’s current inflation rate stands at an all-time high of 33.9% as of August 2022.
Food inflation alone was 34.4%, higher than the national average.
The drivers of food inflation in Ghana are Oils and Fats (67%); Fish and Other Seafood (42.9%); Water (42%); Cereal products (40%); Milk, Diary Products, and Eggs (39.7%), Fruits and Vegetable Juices (37.7%) and Live Animals and Meat (34.5%). All of the items recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 33.9%.