Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands arrived in Ghana on 2 November 2026 in her role as the United Nations Secretary‑General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health. Over four days she met farmers, business leaders and government officials to see how locally driven enterprises are bridging gaps between smallholders, finance and decent employment.

Ghana’s ambition to boost food security now goes beyond simply raising yields. The country is looking to create reliable market channels, secure financing for agribusinesses and develop processing capacity so that increased production translates into stable incomes and a resilient supply chain.

“Ghana’s agricultural opportunity is not only about growing more food; it is about building the markets that allow farmers and businesses to thrive,” said Robert Asugre, Country Director of IDH Ghana.

Showcasing Ghanaian Agribusinesses

FarmMate, a wholly Ghanaian‑owned value‑chain firm launched in 2022, works with tomato growers, providing seeds, irrigation, technical advice, insurance and guaranteed seasonal prices. The company links growers to buyers and turns surplus tomatoes into puree, cutting post‑harvest loss. Its partner profile says it already secures market outlets for over three thousand growers and could generate roughly US$12.5 million in farmer payments when operating at full capacity, supporting close to 9,600 permanent farm jobs, with women and young people making up about 70 % of the workforce.

AgroCenta, an agri‑fintech platform founded in 2016, connects grain producers—especially in northern regions—to buyers, finance, market information, storage and logistics. Since 2018 the platform has moved more than 70,000 metric tonnes of grain and notes a 50 % rise in women’s participation as primary producers in the areas it serves.

WamiAgro operates the Pukpara platform across six regions, reaching over 60,000 smallholder farmers. It has provided more than US$600,000 in input finance to roughly 5,000 growers, boasts a portfolio recovery rate near 95 %, and reports yield gains of up to 44 % among participants.

These three firms illustrate a full market system: FarmMate aggregates and processes produce, AgroCenta supplies finance and logistics, and WamiAgro delivers credit and advisory services. IDH Ghana builds on these pilots with programmes such as Grains for Growth, which reached 49,651 farmers and helped 170,745 young people find work; the Women in Sourcing and Enterprise (WISE) initiative, working with 16 SMEs to create 125,000 jobs, 80 % of them for young women and youth; and the Making Agrifood Markets Accessible for Soy Farmers (MAMA) programme, targeting 10,000 farmers—most of them women—and aiming for about 20,750 jobs between 2026 and 2028.

The visit concluded with a tour of HPW Ghana’s dried tropical fruit factory in the Upper West Akim District, the largest of its kind in West Africa. Discussions focused on workplace financial health and the role of agri‑tech in raising productivity, underscoring the UN’s view that financial inclusion and robust market systems are essential pillars for long‑term food security in Ghana.