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The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is required to appear before Parliament for non-payment to cocoa farmers through their respective Authorized Buying Companies (LBC) during the 2020/21 harvest season period.
First Vice President Joseph Osei-Owusu gave the directive in a reaction, following a statement by Kofi Adams, a Buem deputy and contributions to the members’ statement, on the plight of cocoa farmers in cocoa growing areas in Ghana, for not receiving payments. .
The President further directed the House Leadership to schedule board officials to meet with the full House Committee to discuss the issues.
Mr. Adams’s statement was titled: “The plight of cocoa farmers in the Buem constituency despite the $ 1.3 billion loan facility to the Ghana Cocoa Board.”
According to Adams, reports from his constituency and other constituencies in cocoa-producing regions say that LBCs have not paid cocoa farmers for cocoa purchased in the past two months even though they are in the third month of the year. main cocoa production. season.
“The Ghana Cocoa Board secured a $ 1.3 billion facility to purchase cocoa beans for the 2020/21 harvest season. This facility was to help the cocoa board make advance payment for the cocoa beans it buys from cocoa farmers, ”said Adams.
He added: “Most of the cocoa farmers in Ghana depend primarily on the income from the sale of cocoa to provide for themselves and their families and, more importantly, to prepare new farmland for the next agricultural season.
“The proceeds from these sales pay for their bills ranging from school fees to household utilities to medical bills.”
The Buem MP urged the House to intervene so that the Ghana Cocoa Board will release funds to LBCs so that they can pay farmers for cocoa beans purchased during the period under review.
“It was Parliament that approved the syndicated facility in order to buy cocoa for harvest (2020/21),” argued Adam.
Later, Adams, at a press conference, with the support of Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, MP for Juaboso, shed more light on the matter, arguing that the non-payment to the cocoa producer worsened its difficult economic situation during the period.
Deputy Majority Leader and MP for Efutu Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, at a press conference just after Mr Adams’, responded to calls from the Buem MP and refuted the assertions made by the Buem MP.
Afenyo-Markin challenged Mr. Adams to name the LBCs that had not paid the cocoa farmers, as he (Afenyo-Markin) said that COCOBOD had liquidated all the LBCs that obtained payment certificates.
