Ghana has launched the Ghana Agricultural Fund for Education and Transformation (GAFET), a national endowment designed to provide sustainable financing for agricultural education and develop the human capital needed to transform the country’s agriculture sector.
The Fund was formally launched in Accra on August 11, 2026, by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Eric Opoku, at a ceremony attended by development partners, financial institutions, agribusiness leaders, traditional authorities, students and members of the media.
GAFET has mobilised GH¢3.5 million in founding capital and is targeting GH¢10 million by December 2026 and GH¢100 million by December 2028.
Why Ghana is creating GAFET
The initiative seeks to address a major human-capital challenge within Ghana’s agricultural sector. While agriculture remains a major contributor to the Ghanaian economy, agricultural education institutions continue to face funding constraints and relatively low enrolment compared with other tertiary programmes.
GAFET is designed to create a professionally managed endowment in which the capital is preserved and invested, while annual investment returns are used to finance approved priorities across Ghana’s agricultural education system.
The Fund is expected to support areas including practical training, laboratories, demonstration farms, mechanisation, digital agriculture, research and innovation, agribusiness incubation, faculty development and scholarships.
GH¢100m target by 2028
Speaking at the launch, GAFET Lead Coordinator Steven Nhyira Odarteifio said the Fund was established around the principle that transforming agriculture requires investment in the people who will drive that transformation.
He said GAFET would focus on closing the gap between classroom learning and the practical demands of modern agriculture by equipping students with technical and entrepreneurial capabilities relevant to a technology-driven agricultural economy.
Mr. Odarteifio also called for broader participation from the private sector, financial institutions, development partners, alumni associations, philanthropic foundations and individuals to establish a broad national ownership base for the initiative.
Minister links fund to Feed Ghana programme
Delivering the keynote address, Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku described GAFET as an important human-capital pillar of the government’s Feed Ghana programme.
He emphasised that Ghana’s ability to sustainably increase agricultural production would depend heavily on the quality of agricultural human capital available to the sector.
The Minister called on commercial banks, pension funds, insurance companies, agribusinesses, development partners, philanthropic organisations and alumni associations to support the Fund through contributions towards laboratories, workshops, demonstration farms, scholarships and agricultural colleges.
He also highlighted an increase in funding allocated to agricultural colleges, from GH¢35,000 to GH¢100,000 per institution, which he said had contributed to a 35 percent increase in enrolment.
GAFET to support 21 institutions
The Fund is expected to initially support 21 agricultural education institutions, comprising five standalone agricultural colleges and 16 universities and technical universities.
Investment returns from the endowment will be directed towards practical training, mechanisation, research and innovation, digital agriculture, agribusiness incubation, faculty development and scholarships.
GAFET is expected to transition to a full endowment structure in the fourth quarter of 2026, with a governing board, fund administrator, fund manager and custodian bank.
The proposed governance framework includes the use of a Securities and Exchange Commission-licensed fund manager, independent annual audits, an approved investment policy focused on capital preservation and the publication of annual summaries.
Long-term statutory institution planned
The Fund is ultimately expected to become a permanent statutory institution established through an Act of Parliament.
GAFET Secretariat Technical Lead Seyram Kofori-Ndinya said transparent governance would be critical to maintaining public confidence and ensuring that contributions made to the Fund create lasting value.
Agribusinesses join as founding partners
Five Ghanaian-led agribusinesses — AgriSolve, GrowForMe, New Age Agric Solutions, Tradeline Consult and Farmerline — have joined GAFET as founding partners.
The businesses highlighted the importance of attracting young people into agriculture while equipping them with practical skills, technology and access to modern agricultural infrastructure.
Farmerline pledged to contribute capital and access to its technology platform, while GrowForMe committed to opening its crowdfunding platform to support the growth of the Fund.
Building Ghana’s agricultural future
The launch of GAFET represents an attempt to establish a sustainable financing mechanism for agricultural education rather than relying solely on annual government allocations.
With an initial GH¢3.5 million already mobilised and a GH¢100 million target for 2028, the initiative is expected to rely heavily on collaboration between government, private businesses, financial institutions, development partners, alumni and individual contributors.
For the organisers, the ultimate measure of GAFET’s success will be whether the Fund can strengthen agricultural education, produce better-equipped graduates and contribute to a more productive, innovative and commercially competitive agricultural sector in Ghana.
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