Your government almost paralyzed COCOBOD – Fiifi Boafo tells Mahama | Policy

The Ghana Cocoa Board has asked former President John Dramani Mahama to monitor his comments on COCOBOD so as not to give the sector's regulator a "political management".

"It's the umpteenth time that the former leader made such politicized comments about COCOBOD. He will do it and we will have to react politically and set the record straight again. What is he trying to achieve? His so-called good decisions that he has asked us to emulate in the cocoa sector are flawed and questionable, "said Fiifi Boafo, spokesman for the Ghana Cocoa Commission at Kasapa 102.5 FM.

His comment follows Mahama's last visit to President Akufo-Addo during a meeting with cocoa farmers and the Enchi people in the Aowin constituency of the North West region on Tuesday.

The flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. John Dramani Mahama, described the decision by President Nana Akufo-Addo to put an end to the supply of women. fertilizers free of charge to cocoa farmers and allow their expiry and disposal.

"I am very sad for our cocoa farmers," said President Mahama, adding "we had good plans and we started to implement good policies for the cocoa sector".

"When we started distributing free fertilizer, it was because we understood that it would help improve performance. During the 2016/17 crop year, we recorded 950,000 tonnes … I do not understand why the government will decide to stop these activities and sell the fertilizer to the farmers … In fact, it is a bad thing to leave fertilizers in warehouses because farmers can not and will not buy them, and throw them after they expire, "he lamented.

However, reacting to Mahama's comments on Anapas Kasapa about Kasapa 102.5 Fm, Fiifi Boafo said the former leader and his government had spent every cent of Cocobod's budget at the end of December 2016.

"It's easy to badign a contract to company A or B for the supply of fertilizer, but be aware that if the lot is delivered, you have to pay it. Let's ask Mr. Mahama if there were funds available to answer his questions. Because in November 2016, it was planned to bring fertilizer. It was delivered in April and May 2017 and as of December 30, the budget to pay all the fertilizer contracts had been spent. So how did he expect us to pay all these entrepreneurs?

"As of December 30, all the money intended for Cocobod's 2016/2017 operation ending in September 2017 had been spent penniless. It included the budget for cocoa beans, fertilizer contracts, transportation costs; any other cost to manage the cocoa trade had been wasted. So how did he expect us to pay all our debts? he questioned.