Nkoko Nkitinkiti initiative has not failed — Otokunor

The Director of Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness, Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, has dismissed claims that the government’s Nkokonkitinkiti poultry policy has failed, describing such criticisms as based on a flawed assessment of the programme.

He insists the intervention, which falls under President John Dramani Mahama’s broader Poultry Farm to the Table initiative, remains on course to revitalise Ghana’s poultry industry through household and commercial production.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Channel One TV, Dr Otokunor maintained that the programme was still working towards its intended goals.

“No, it has not failed. It’s a very defective assertion if anybody should know,” he said.

He explained that the household component was introduced to help families generate additional income while improving access to poultry products through backyard poultry farming.

Under the commercial component, existing poultry farms are being supported with chicks, feed and medication to increase their production capacity.

Dr Otokunor said the government was also adopting an integrated strategy to strengthen the poultry value chain, arguing that increased production must be matched with adequate processing infrastructure.

“When you are growing the poultry industry, and you don’t do it in an integrated manner where industry value addition can be done, processing can be done, then you would be joking,” he stated.

As part of this strategy, he pointed to the construction of the Bechem Poultry Processing Plant, which he said would help expand the country’s capacity to process locally produced poultry.

According to him, the broader intervention seeks to boost domestic production and reduce Ghana’s estimated annual expenditure of $500 million on poultry imports.

He added that improved processing facilities would enable local producers to respond to changing consumer demands, which increasingly include specific chicken portions such as wings, feet, thighs and breasts rather than only whole chicken.

The Director further explained that the household programme was designed to equip beneficiaries with practical poultry-rearing skills and experience that could eventually help them establish small- and medium-scale businesses.

Beneficiaries, he said, could sell part of their poultry, reinvest the proceeds and gradually expand their operations.

“And so we are looking for people who are able to transform this intervention into businesses that will create jobs for other people to work with them,” he said.

He maintained that the initiative is intended not only to increase poultry production but also to create sustainable businesses, expand employment opportunities, and strengthen Ghana’s poultry industry.

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