Nkoko Nkitinkiti policy will fail, can't solve Ghana's poultry problem — Kofi Bentil

Policy Analyst and Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has criticised the government's Nkoko Nkitinkiti programme, arguing that the initiative is fundamentally flawed and incapable of addressing Ghana's poultry production deficit.

His comments come after the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, disclosed that some beneficiaries of the programme had slaughtered and consumed the birds they received instead of rearing them for commercial production.

Speaking before Parliament's Assurance Committee on Thursday, July 9, the Minister said the practice undermines the programme's objective of increasing domestic poultry production, reducing imports and creating sustainable livelihoods.

Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile programme on Saturday, July 11, Bentil said the shortcomings of the initiative were foreseeable from the outset and questioned why government officials failed to identify the weaknesses before rolling it out.

"It should be possible for them to tell you that Nkoko Nkitinkiti has zero chance of solving the poultry deficit in Ghana, because I can say that here. It will fail. It will not solve the poultry problem in Ghana. The money will be spent, wasted, and stolen," he said.

Bentil argued that distributing a few day-old chicks to individuals cannot solve a poultry import bill estimated at about $600 million annually.

He said Ghana needs large-scale commercial poultry investments rather than scattered household distribution.

He disclosed that he had been involved in discussions with investors interested in establishing a $35 million industrial poultry farm in Ghana, describing such initiatives as the type of intervention capable of transforming the sector.

"What they should do is get serious people to go in, produce poultry on an industrial scale... You can't sprinkle day-old chicks around and solve the poultry problem," said the policy analyst.