Energy investor Kevin Okyere warns Ghana must act as 12 % face food insecurity

Ghana is entering a moment of reckoning. With the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimating that roughly 12 per cent of the population now faces food insecurity, private-sector actors are being drawn into what has traditionally been a wholly public-sector challenge.

Energy entrepreneur Kevin Okyere, founder of Springfield Energy and chair of the Kevin Okyere Foundation, made his case public on World Food Day, calling for what he termed “shared action” across business, civil society and government. He argued that societal resilience cannot rely solely on aid: it must be anchored in empowerment, skills development and meaningful partnership.

“Progress is not the work of government alone – it’s a collective calling. When business and community move together with empathy and purpose, we build the kind of Ghana our children deserve,” Okyere said.

That argument reflects a broader evolution in Africa’s private-sector role. Many large commodity-linked firms are now repositioning themselves as developers of human capital and enablers of supply-chain resilience—not just profit-seeking enterprises. Okyere’s foundation distributed food and essential supplies to more than 400 families in the Fadama district. Yet it did not stop there: the programme spans vocational and skills-training initiatives designed to equip young Ghanaians for future employment.

The strategy underlines his belief that “food is the most basic expression of care … but care must evolve into capability.” By connecting livelihood development with underlying energy, infrastructure and industrial systems, he is advancing a narrative in which business value and social value are not separate.

Moreover, Okyere explicitly tied the foundation’s activism to his corporate identity. “Energy powers economies,” he said. “But compassion sustains them. At Springfield, creating value means fueling hope, dignity and shared prosperity.” It is a distinctive stance for an entrepreneur whose background lies in oil-and-gas exploration, yet who is seeking to reposition his message toward development and resilience.

For Ghana, the challenge will be translating such rhetoric into systemic change. The combination of macro-economic headwinds—rising commodity prices, supply-chain disruptions and climate shocks—and structural vulnerabilities in agriculture and infrastructure creates a backdrop against which private-sector engagement is no longer optional. As Okyere’s foundation shifts from hand-outs to capability building, it may set the template for how African firms engage with social risk and shared prosperity in the next decade.