Hon.Obeng Asare Calls for Radical COCOBOD Reform, Citing Exploitation of Cocoa Farmers and Financial Mismanagement

Honourable Obeng Kwame Asare, popularly known as “A Plus,” the newly elected independent Member of Parliament for the Gomoa Central Constituency in the Central Region, has issued a strong call for a comprehensive reform of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), emphasizing the need to drastically reduce spending and financial losses. Hon. Obeng Asare contends that the current system disproportionately benefits a small group of political allies, service providers, and COCOBOD staff at the expense of hardworking cocoa farmers. His passionate critique underscores the systemic injustices within the cocoa industry, highlighting the need for a fundamental shift that prioritizes the welfare of the farmers and ensures a fair distribution of the sector’s profits.

According to Asare, the current structure of COCOBOD allows a small elite—comprising party supporters, service providers such as suppliers of fertilizers and insecticides, and COCOBOD staff including its CEO—to reap excessive benefits while cocoa farmers, who are the backbone of the industry, are left struggling. He argued that the revenue generated by cocoa should primarily benefit the farmers who undertake the laborious process of cultivating it. Asare made a point that while institutions like the University of Ghana were funded with cocoa revenue, no farmer ever ventured into the bush to plant cocoa specifically for the government to build universities or establish COCOBOD to enrich CEOs and politicians. He emphasized that for generations, farmers have cultivated cocoa to secure a sustainable income for their families, and the system should reflect this primary purpose.

Asare further highlighted the plight of cocoa farmers and their families, particularly the widespread issue of child labour on cocoa farms. He noted the irony that countless children who labour on cocoa farms have never even tasted a bar of chocolate or a chocolate drink. This grim reality underscores the stark injustice of the current system, where the massive profits accumulated by COCOBOD and its associates come at the expense of the farmers and their communities. He even went further to say, “The massive profits COCOBOD and its associates accumulate at the expense of farmers are not only unjust but could also be considered crimes against humanity.”

Hon. Asare warned that if the exploitation continues unchecked, where individuals with no direct involvement in cocoa farming become wealthy while cocoa farmers and their families languish in poverty, farmers will be forced to explore alternative options for survival. He stated that they would either sell their land to illegal miners or engage in illegal mining themselves, further exacerbating the problems within the cocoa industry and the environment. He used the example of how someone can earn nearly $90,000 monthly from gold mining on the same land, pointing out the disparity in profit that makes illegal mining a much more attractive venture than cocoa farming.

According to Asare, COCOBOD’s corrupt system has inadvertently fueled the appeal of illegal mining (galamsey), turning it into a more viable option for struggling farmers. Instead of incentivizing cocoa farmers to expand their production—an initiative that could potentially combat global warming and generate valuable foreign exchange—the government has effectively made illegal mining a more attractive financial prospect. He concluded by stating that radical reforms are urgently needed within COCOBOD to prioritize the welfare of cocoa farmers and ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the wealth generated by the cocoa industry, rather than enriching a privileged few.