World Bank warns of food insecurity for 50m people in West, Central Africa including Ghana
The World Bank is projecting that nearly 50 million people in West and Central Africa including Ghana would face food insecurity during this year’s lean season from June to August 2025.
In its Food Security Update February 2025, the Bretton Woods institution said food security continues to be alarming in most low-income countries, particularly Africa.
It pointed out that conflicts and climate change continue to be the main drivers of food insecurity.
Since the last update, agricultural and export price indices have risen, closing at 3% and 6% higher, respectively. The cereal price index closed at the same level.
According to the February 2025 edition of the AMIS Market Monitor, international prices for crops (wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans) remain lower than a year ago, except for maize, which reached a 15-month high because of supply limitations.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Price Monitoring and Analysis, indicated that coarse grain prices exhibited mixed month-on-month trends in countries of the Sahel and along the Gulf of Guinea in December 2024 and January 2025, although in several countries in the subregion, coarse grain prices were higher than during the same period last year.
For example, in Mali, wholesale sorghum prices in January 2025 were generally 10 to 25% higher than year-earlier levels, and millet prices were 15 to 45% higher, mainly reflecting high transport costs, conflict-related market disruptions, and production shortfalls in the 2024 cereal harvest in several areas.
In Burkina Faso, wholesale sorghum and millet prices were up to 55% higher on a yearly basis in most monitored markets, except for a few markets where the year-on-year increase in millet prices was more pronounced.
While 281 million people globally experienced acute food insecurity in 2023, humanitarian aid to food sectors declined by 30% compared to 2022. That is despite a long-term trend in assistance which showed a 56% increase since 2016.
The World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report (January 2025) warns of prolonged economic stagnation, with global growth projected to remain at 2.7% through 2026.
Although this signals some stability, it falls short of driving meaningful poverty reduction or tackling rising food and nutrition insecurity in low-income countries.
The report underscored how persistent challenges—high inflation, mounting debt, and trade disruptions—are exacerbating food insecurity for the world’s most vulnerable.
Highest food inflation
In another development, Ghana has the highest food inflation rate among lower middle-income countries in Africa, the World Bank has revealed in its Food Security Update February 2025.
The country’s food inflation rate of 28.3% in December 2024 ranked it 1st among its peers in the Africa region.
Egypt came 2nd with a food inflation rate of 20.8% as of December 2024. It was followed by Zambia in 3rd position with a food inflation rate of 19.2%.
According to the World Bank, domestic food price inflation (measured as year-on-year change in the food component of a country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI)) remains moderately high.
“Information from the latest month between October 2024 and January 2025 for which food price inflation data is available shows high inflation in many low- and middle-income countries, with inflation higher than 5.0% in 73.7% of low-income countries, 52.2% of lower-middle-income countries, 38.0% of upper middle-income countries (no change), and 5.6% of high-income countries (1.8 percentage points lower)”, the Bretton Woods institution said.
In real terms, it alluded that food price inflation exceeded overall inflation in 56% of the 164 countries for which food CPI and overall CPI indexes are both available.
The World Bank also said since its January 2025 update, agricultural and export price indices have risen, closing at 3% and 6% higher, respectively.
The cereal price index closed at the same level. Maize and wheat prices closed 3% and 5% higher, respectively. Rice prices, on the other hand, closed 10% lower.
On a year-on-year basis, maize prices are 10% higher while wheat and rice prices are 6% and 19% lower. Compared to January 2020, maize prices are 27% higher, wheat prices 2% lower, and rice prices 14% higher.
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