Interior Minister Hon. Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed has confirmed that the government has approved an increase in the daily feeding rate for inmates from GH¢1.80 to GH¢5, but the funds to implement the policy are yet to be released.
Speaking before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the Minister said the new rate has been captured in the 2026 budget and separated as a standalone allocation of GH¢40 million annually – GH¢10 million per quarter.
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“We agreed to the GH¢5 and it has been captured in the budget. We proposed GH¢10 and battled for GH¢7.5, but the budget envelope could only allow GH¢5 for now. It’s not adequate, but it is a good start from the GH¢1.80 where we have been stuck since 2010,” Hon. Muntaka explained.
He admitted being alarmed by the state of prison meals during his visits.
To ease pressure on the system, he said the government had granted amnesty to nearly 900 inmates and is pursuing industrialisation and agricultural projects under the “Feed Ghana” initiative to make prisons more self-sufficient.
Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mrs Patience Baffoe-Bonnie (ESQ.), also told the committee that the long-standing GH¢1.80 allocation is grossly inadequate, especially as contractors who supply food take their profit from it. “Practically, we are feeding inmates with just about one cedi,” she disclosed.
In the meantime, the Prisons Service has resorted to creative coping mechanisms such as the “Director General’s Kitchen Support Project,” which encourages prison facilities to operate gardens, poultry, and livestock ventures, supplemented occasionally by church donations.
Mrs. Baffoe-Bonnie warned that the feeding crisis is more than a welfare issue. “Of all the things that give cause for riots in our prisons, food is the number one trigger. We are passionate about preventing unrest, but we urgently need the approved funds released,” she stressed.
Both the Interior Minister and the Prisons Service urged the government to expedite the release of the GH¢10 million allocation for the last quarter of 2025, while pushing for further upward reviews in 2026 and beyond to reflect the real cost of feeding inmates.