The Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku, has asserted that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has incurred losses since President Akufo-Addo assumed office.
He attributed these losses to the poor performance of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government, which has been in power since 2017.
During an interview with Bernard Avle on the Point of View on Citi TV, Eric Opoku, who serves as the Ranking Member for the Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs Committee, described the losses incurred under the current administration as unparalleled.
“What surprises us is that since Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia assumed office, as President and Vice President, under their government, COCOBOD has been incurring losses. In the past 7 years, they have been incurring losses, unprecedented in the history of cocoa in our country.
“That a particular government will be recording losses for 7 consecutive years. And even this year, that they are bagging three-fourths of the world market price [but] they are saying that they are also going to incur a loss of 2.6 billion. And so, we cannot understand what is happening in COCOBOD,” he said.
Eric Opoku also criticized the government for only giving cocoa farmers one-fourth of the earnings from the world market.
“Assuming you are a producer of cocoa and because Ghana wants the farmer and the nation to benefit, we have to establish a regulator to ensure that we produce in larger quantities, and provide guaranteed prices to our farmers. And then we get enough from our cocoa for farmers and the nation. Then in a period, whatever we are getting from cocoa, the government says I’m getting three-fourths and I’m giving you [cocoa farmers] one-fourth. Everybody will complain.”
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