Oro Oil Ghana Limited, the largest exporter of palm oil to Nigeria, has sealed a 10-year partnership deal with Nigerian investors to upscale production potential and expand into other markets.
The initiative among other things, aims to reduce reliance on traditional methods, boost smallholder farmers’ income and set up Ghana as a major player in the palm oil industry on the continent.
Beyond trade, the strategic partnership will bring Nigerian oil palm investment expertise and machinery to complement Ghana’s conducive environment for cultivation of over 10,000 hectares of plantation size, affordable and abundant workforce and large market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA).
Due to neglect and lack of strategic investment in the subsector by successive governments, Ghana’s production capacity dwindled. The country’s palm oil export for 2024 dropped by over 50 percent, according to the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana.
The Nigerian counterpart emphasised that any growth and export driven strategy for Ghana must include standards for international best practices to attract investors and drive market confidence.
Nigeria currently consumes approximately three million metric tons of palm oil annually with Oro Oil Ghana being the largest exporter in Ghana to Nigeria.
CEO of Oro Oil Ghana Limited, Maxwell Commey, stressed that the decline in Ghana’s production levels is due to the lack of support for the sector, poor planting materials and technological gap, hence the need to invest in technology and other high yielding seeds.
“This partnership aims to foster growth in Ghana’s palm oil industry and establish mutually beneficial cooperation. This is indeed a confident booster for Oro Oil Ghana Limited and the economy at large,” he said.
Speaking at the much-anticipated National Economic Dialogue (NED) 2025, at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), an event that brought together leading economic experts, policymakers, and industry leaders to tackle Ghana’s pressing economic challenges, Mr. Commey noted that, Ghana currently has about 100,000 hectors of planted oil palm capacity, hence this all-important partnership will mobilise investors and other industry resources from Nigerian to expand.
He added that this will deepen employment within the value chain with estimated direct employment of about 40,000 people. This is a boost to the country’s gross domestic products (GDP), industrialization drive, and building expertise through knowledge transfer.
He made a clarion call for the government to establish land bank that will go a long way to improve production and address the supply chain gap of approximately 250,00MT.
Mr. Commey took the opportunity to urge the government to step up support for the sector to harness the full potential within the local and regional markets.
The two-day National Economic Dialogue 2025, Chaired by President John Mahama, centered on the theme “Resetting Ghana: Building the Economy We Want Together.”
