Bono East Region farmer Mariam Alhassan filed a Supreme Court challenge to the industrial hemp licensing framework last month. She argues that licence costs and entry requirements are unconstitutional and effectively disbar small stakeholder farmers from participating in the emerging industry.
Her arguments echo Hempire Association of Ghana (HAG) CEO Nana Kwaku Agyemang’s response to the industrial cannabis license fees issued in January, which he decried as among the most expensive in the world. Agyemang said Ghana’s farmers had effectively been locked out of the prospective hemp sector by the licensing structure which he says is designed to attract international investment rather than develop a domestic industry.
Agyemang reportedly raised his concerns with Parliament but its uncertain whether the relaxation of certain license fees had anything to do with this.
There are mostly minor concessions to the draft cannabis licence fee regulations issued under Legal Instrument (LI) 2025, the ‘Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2025’ .
The biggest adjustments are in Export Licence and Distribution & Sale Licence fees, which have been reduced by more than two thirds from the quotations authorities initially touted. The two licences have each been slashed from US$10 000 to US$3 000.
Also, fees charged for a hectare of cannabis under cultivation now progressively decrease with an increase in the acreage planted. It still costs a jaw-dropping $45 000 to get a Category 2 licence (between five hectares and 20 hectares) in Ghana. However, costs decrease by $500 for each subsequent higher category. The result is that farmers or entities planting more than 15 000 hectares in the highest and final Category 8 bracket will be charged $42 000 per hectare.
Licence fees for Transport; Distribution and Sale; and Storage have also been slashed by considerable margins.
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