In Ghanaian cuisine, banku and akple (// ⓘ) are swallow dishes made of a slightly fermented cooked mixture of maize and cassava doughs formed into single-serving balls.

Banku is cooked in hot water until it turns into a smooth, whitish paste,[1][2][3] served with soup, okra stew or a pepper sauce with fish.

Banku is a softer variety eaten by the Ga-Dangme (Ga or Dangbe), while the Fante people also have a drier variant of the dish they call ɛtsew.

There are similar tonal terms with different meaning in the Ga language, such as Inku (for pomade in the Ga-language), Ashanku (for a variant of a plantain fritter called Tatale), and many other names ending in 'ku'.

[9][failed verification] The main ingredients for preparing banku are corn flour, cassava, salt and water.