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Abstract
Attaining the daily required nutritional recommendations is a major challenge in Ghana where the
average person earns about $1.89 per day. A linear programming diet model is used to determine
the cheapest basket of food items that satisfy the recommended daily nutritional requirements of the
average Ghanaian. Initial findings show that an average Ghanaian requires $0.36 per day to meet his
required nutritional needs. This would be met with a food basket made up of sorghum, yam,
cassava, coconut and milk. With this food basket and the estimated food expenditure, the average
person in Ghana would save about 80% of his/her daily earnings. Sensitivity analyses are also
performed to test the robustness of the findings. The paper further highlights some of the limitations
of the methodology.