The late President John Evans Atta Mills was passionate about many things, and surging food prices in particular and food security in general was one of such. Ahead of the 2008 General Elections, Prof. Mills, promised to institute a buffer stock system to ensure food security for all Ghanaians if voted into power. It was his case that “When the yams are getting rotten on the farm, you have to find some money, buy them, store and in the lean season you sell them to recover the money”. He argued that prices of food were surging at the time simply because government then had neglected agriculture. The elections came, he won and made good his campaign promise by establishing the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) through an Executive Instrument (EI), as a limited liability company wholly owned by the government of Ghana and superintended by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). On 11th March, 2010, the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited was incorporated under the Companies Code of Ghana, 1963, Act 179. The task for the company was simple; purchases excess produce or food crops from farmers in periods of glut for distribution to the populace in the lean season. This is to restore confidence to farmers safeguard livelihoods. It was also to check post-harvest losses and help control inflation. The company was also given the mandate to manage the nation’s food security reserve by holding what is known in disaster and relief circles as emergency food stocks or emergency reserve. To demonstrate its commitment to the vision, government made available some GH¢15 million as initial seed capital, consisting of GH¢10 million cash and GH¢5 million grains. Staff recruitments and salaries, operational vehicles and equipment, and office accommodation were to come from the seed capital. Governments have only paid lip-service to the food buffer stock agenda ever since. Fifteen years on, has the National Food Buffer Stock Company lived up to its relevance? Laudable as the vision of the originators may be, the concept of food buffer stock has not worked so well in the country due to financial challenges. Governments over the years have failed to allocate the institution a dedicated budget to enable it to carry out its core mandates, as I earlier stated. This is against the backdrop that all over the world, keeping or holding emergency reserve and managing a food buffer stock is a capital-intensive venture often requiring deliberate commitments by the central government. For the realization of the full vision of the food buffer stock idea, government must take steps to recapitalize the company. That aside, government must demonstrate its commitment to food security by giving to the company dedicated funds for the emergency food reserve, and already, the signs are looking positive. The 2025 Budget introduced measures aimed at addressing food inflation, a major contributor to overall inflation, as hinted by the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiama, a few days ago. Food prices are rising and driving household expenses and business costs, the reason such targeted fiscal interventions are essential for stabilising prices and ensuring macroeconomic stability. During his vetting, Finance Minister Dr. Casely Ato Forson also emphasized the importance of combined efforts by him and his food and agriculture counterpart, Mr. Eric Opoku to focus on ensuring food security and making food more affordable for all citizens. “I am deeply passionate about this, and I will work effectively with the minister responsible for agriculture to ensure both food security and cheaper food for all,” he said. NAFCO has important roles to play in the just unveiled government’s flagship Agriculture for Economic Transformation Agenda (AETA), which aims to modernize farming, boost agribusiness, ensure food security, and create jobs. The financial challenges notwithstanding, the National Food Buffer Stock Company has asserted itself strongly over the last decade and a half. When Covid-19 came, the company led the important intervention of food distribution to a section of Ghanaians through faith-based organizations. At the Pentecost Convention Center, where Covid-19 patients were isolated, NAFCO stayed on course and delivered uninterrupted supply of food to patients and staff of the Ghana Health Service, proving the daily nutritious needs, until the Isolation center was closed down. NAFCO was described as a Covid-19 Hero by the Ghana Health Service. Between 2017 and date, the National Food Buffer Stock Company has played a pivotal role that has ensured the success of the government’s Free Senior High School Program, otherwise known as Free SHS. Until the inclusion of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) somewhere after 2020, Buffer Stock single-handedly delivered 18 food commodity items to some 722 state-assisted high schools without hitches. “If something could collapse the free SHS Policy, it would have been the feeding of the students and this is why I commend Buffer Stock for helping to sustain the policy” said then education minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh. By serving as the supplier of food to the schools under the Free SHS programme, Buffer Stock can perform its function as the national aggregator, buying from local farmers at farmgate prices. This certainly helps address post-harvest losses and invigorates the agriculture value chain. Around 2017, Ghana’s National Food Buffer Stock Company won an international competitive bid to hold ECOWAS Emergency Food Stocks in Ghana. For nine years and counting, several tones of rice, maize, millet and sorghum are held in Ghana on behalf of the regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, who authorise distribution to West African nations when hit by disasters or crisis. This is a further testament to the buffer stock and food security vision of the country. The food crisis that hit West Africa in 2008 highlighted the need to strengthen the emergency food security reserves at national and local levels and to create a solidarity mechanism at the regional level. This led to the creation of the Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) on February 28, 2013 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, by ECOWAS Heads of State at their 42nd Ordinary Summit. NAFCO has over the years successfully contributed to policy formulation in safeguarding food security at home and abroad. For instance, in February 2021, NAFCO hosted stakeholders from member countries of ECOWAS in Accra at a workshop to discuss and validate two important policy documents; a National Food Storage Policy and National Security Stocks Manual Procedure. The formulation of the policy and manual was to feed into the implementation of food security storage strategies, which will require designated warehouses to hold the reserves under best practices known in the industry. In a bid to drum home the need to consume locally produced foods, the National Food Buffer Stock Company launched a nationwide “Eat Ghana Campaign” to inculcate taste and preference for Ghanaian foods among the youth, using students in senior high school as the base. Today, the interest in Ghana Rica has grown significantly especially in senior high schools, technical and vocational schools where food is supplied freely courtesy the Free SHS. I have absolute belief in the ability of the National Food Buffer Stock Company to deliver to achieve the very purpose for which it was set up. What the entity needs urgently is recapitalization and retooling. It needs more and adequate and large-capacity new Warehouses. The existing Warehouses are calling for urgent rehabilitation. There is the urgent need to have technology and innovation introduced to enhance food buffer stock operations. Some conservative estimates have it that not less than GH¢200 million is required to enable the company hold emergency food stocks for the nation. It is achievable if we make it a national priority, and here I go back to the words of the vision bearer, late President Mills. He was right then and still is when he said that “what we need is the will and determination to do it, and not to talk about it”. As we reflect on this 15-year milestone, we must recognise the work done by individuals that has ensured the dream is realized. These include former and current Chief Executive Officers in the persons of messrs Eric Osei-Wusu, Hanan Abdul-Wahab and George Abradu-Otoo. Former Board Chairmen; messrs Kwesi Ahwoi, Clement Humado, Fiifi Kwetey, Dr. Emmanuel Adu-Sarkodee, William Quitoo and Henry Nana Boakye deserve mention. I pay glowing tribute to the late Professor J.E.A Mills for the foresight and to all former and current Ministers responsible for Food and Agriculture as well as former and current staff of the National Food Buffer Stock Company. I see change and I see it coming earlier than anticipated. The Buffer Stock system must work. The author is the Head of Corporate Affairs at National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO).