The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has commenced the distribution of poultry birds to registered beneficiaries in the Ashanti Region under the government’s Nkoko Nkitinkiti initiative, a key intervention aimed at revitalising Ghana’s domestic poultry industry.

The distribution exercise began in the Ejisu Municipality and was later extended to the Juaben Municipality, where each beneficiary received 50 poultry birds together with two bags of Nkoko Nkitinkiti-branded feed to support initial production.

The programme is part of the wider Feed Ghana Programme, which seeks to expand local food production, generate employment and reduce Ghana’s heavy dependence on imported poultry products.

According to MoFA, domestic demand for poultry meat before 2025 exceeded 350,000 metric tonnes annually, while local producers supplied only about 15,000 metric tonnes, leaving a significant supply gap filled by imports.

Addressing the media in Kumasi ahead of the distribution, the National Coordinator of the Feed Ghana Programme, Bright Demordzi, said registration forms had already been dispatched to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies across the country to ensure an organised and effective rollout.

Although the Ashanti Region is the first to benefit from the exercise, Mr Demordzi indicated that other regions would be covered progressively, depending on their level of preparedness and implementation capacity.

He noted that the programme is deliberately targeting youth- and women-led enterprises, as well as small- and medium-scale poultry farmers, to maximise its socio-economic impact.

Launched in Kumasi last year, the Nkoko Nkitinkiti project is being positioned as a strategic economic recovery intervention rather than a standalone farming initiative.

Through the provision of birds, feed and technical support, the government aims to strengthen food security, create jobs and enable local poultry producers to reclaim a market long dominated by imports.