12.5 million Ghanaians still face food insecurity – GSS

Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, the Government’s Statistician, says 12.5 million Ghanaians, representing 38.1 per cent of the population, remain food insecure according to the Ghana Statistical Service Food Insecurity Report.

The report considered food insecurity in Ghana between the period 2024 Q1 to 2025 Q3.

Although approximately 900,000 people exited food insecurity between the second and third quarters of 2025, the overall trend since early 2024 remained an upward climb in vulnerability.

During the release of the report in Accra on Tuesday, Dr Iddrisu emphasised that while the recent reduction of 3.7 million food-insecure people since 2022 was a significant achievement, the current figure of 12.5 million remained a crisis-level concern that required urgent national attention to reduce to the barest minimum.

The report highlighted a deep structural inequality, with gender and geography playing decisive roles in who goes hungry.

He said food insecurity was consistently higher in female-headed households, peaking at 44.1 per cent in the first half of 2025.

By the third quarter, the gender gap between male and female-headed households widened to 6.2 percentage points, reflecting persistent disparities in income, employment opportunities, and caregiving responsibilities.

The Upper West Region remains the hardest hit, recording a prevalence rate of 55.9 per cent, followed by the Volta Region at 50.1 per cent and the North East at 45.9 per cent.

These figures stand in stark contrast to the national average of 38.1 per cent, Dr Iddrisu said.

The Oti Region recorded the lowest prevalence, dropping to 18.4 per cent.

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