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Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture
Food and Agriculture Minister Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto tasked COCOBOD’s management and new board to ensure that farmers are promptly paid to avoid any fuss that could cause the farmer to fail. country its production target for the 2021/2022 crop year. .
The directive follows recent unrest from some cocoa farmers across the country, lamenting debt owed to them after supplying cocoa beans during the light harvest season.
The Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana (LICOBAG) blamed this development on the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said the processes were well advanced to write off the debt.
Speaking at a swearing-in ceremony in the office of an 11-member board of directors, Dr Afriyie Akoto stressed the need to put a premium on the light harvest season, just as is observed for the main season when foreign companies outside the country buy cocoa beans.
He advised licensed purchasing companies (LBCs) to always seek the welfare of cocoa farmers, as they are a priority group under the government’s program to improve the livelihoods of rural farmers. “We know the problem of marketing cocoa in this country. These are challenges that we must face. We need to make sure that the funding of the main crop is done without hampering the finances of the farmers. “
Dr Afriyie Akoto hoped that with the recovery of global economies after the successful manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, the demand for chocolate and confectionery would rise again. This, he said, will help Ghanaian farmers to earn more money since the creation of the living income differential of US $ 400 per tonne of cocoa sold, which goes directly to farmers.
New board of directors put into operation
The eleven-member board of directors comprising ten men and one woman is chaired by Peter Mac Manu, who succeeds Hackman Owusu-Agyemang.
Dr Afriyie Akoto urged the new board to continue building on the successes achieved by the previous board, whose mandate spanned from 2017 to 2021, and initiatives such as rehabilitation, manual pollination, among others, ”he said.
The chairman of the new board, Peter Mac Manu, thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Minister of Food and Agriculture for the opportunity given to him to serve the country and the cocoa industry.
“The policies administered by my predecessor have positively contributed to the production and income of farmers, which is of major interest to this administration, and I look forward to developing them,” he said.
Alongside the chairman, Peter Mac Manu, sit on the board of directors the managing director of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo; the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison; and Charles Adu Boahen, a representative of the Ministry of Finance.
The others are Hebert Krapa, representative of the Ministry of Trade and Industry; Yaw Addo Frimpong, representative of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Edward Okoh Ampofo, who will represent the workers of the Ghana Cocoa Board.
A businesswoman and the only female member of the previous board, Nana Adwoa Dokua, was inducted for a second term as a government candidate along with Suhum Constituency MP Kwadjo Asante.
The cocoa farmers’ representatives on the new board are Nana Johnson Mensah and Nana Obeng Akrofi.
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