Akufo Addo’s Jubilee House Galamsey Cartel Cause of Ghana Importing Cocoa

Recent reports that the Ghana COCOBOD has issued permit for the importation of Cocoa beans has sent an uncomfortable wave through the country, with many referring to the development as a sign of an imminent collapse of the cocoa industry in Ghana.

Information from the industry shows that Ghana is barely going to be able to achieve 700,000 metric tonnes of cocoa this year. This is a decline of over 400,000 metric tonnes from yields recorded in 2016 and 2017.

Even though the government, through COCOBOD is attempting to explain away its incompetence by citing similar imports as far back as 2008, irrefutable facts remain that the Akufo Addo government has actively worked to stunt the development of Ghana’s cocoa industry.

The Jubilee House’s reported direct involvement in illegal gold mining activities that have destroyed vast  lands used to cultivate cocoa is the prime culprit in why Ghana can’t meet local demand for cocoa, and has been forced to import from low-tier producers like Nigeria.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, a former appointee of President Akufo Addo who was tasked to fight illegal gold mining across the country, recently became a whistleblower, revealing damning information of how galamsey activities have virtually been monopolised  by appointees of President Akufo Addo at the Jubilee House.

Incidentally, studies and satellite images from NASA’s Earth Observatory shows that Cocoa lands running into some 150,000 acres of land have been destroyed by galamsey activities, forcing Cocoa yields to decline drastically.

The complicity of the Akufo Addo administration in destroying Ghana’s cocoa industry is also demonstrated through the government’s failure to provide effective extension services and fertiliser to cocoa farmers. The few fertilisers that have been supplied have been clandestinely smuggled out of the country by appointees of the government and the windfall used to line their pockets.

The result of Ghana’s failed cocoa industry is captured in a desperate letter written by COCOBOD to AFROTROPIC COCOA PROCESSING COMPANY LTD, manufacturers of cocoa products in Ghana. By the letter, COCOBOD gave approval to the company to import almost 4,000 tonnes of cocoa beans from Nigeria and Ivory Coast to allow the company be able to produce.

The letter which was written under the signatory the CEO of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, simply confirmed the shortage of cocoa beans from the country in spite of the unsubstantiated claims of the government that it had invested  heavily into the sector.

The  COCOBOD CEO recently admitted that the cocoa sector was facing a violent threat of extinction by the galamsey menace which has also destroyed water bodies across the country.

According Joseph Aidoo, tens of thousands of cocoa farms have either been destroyed or affected by galamsey activities, leading to a loss of income to cocoa farmers and investments made by COCOBOD and the country at large.

Elaborating on statistics emerging at a joint board meeting between Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and Minerals Commission (MINCOM), the Chief Executive of COCOBOD  enumerated that in the Eastern and Western regions alone, more than 81 and 74 percent, respectively, of cocoa farmlands had been affected by illegal mining and the unregulated use of mercury and other chemicals to extract gold and other precious minerals.

In the Ashanti Region, he said, more than 68 percent of cocoa farm areas were affected by the canker.

He added that another 79.41Ha or two percent of farms that were recently rehabilitated by COCOBOD had either been affected by the menace or were at risk of being affected.

Beyond destroying cocoa trees and farmlands, he said, illegal mining had led to the early dropping of pods, wilting, yellowing of leaves, and the generally low yield of cocoa farms.

Those outcomes, he said, threatened the sustainability of the cocoa sector which generates an average of $2.5 billion in foreign exchange every year, as well as its associated multi-billion-cedi cocoa processing sub-sector and millions of jobs within the cocoa value chain.

Meanwhile, in a poor attempt at covering up its incompetence, the Public Affairs Department of COCOBOD  issued a rebuttal, claiming the letter granting Afrotropic Cocoa Processing Company the right to import cocoa beans was an age-old practice of COCOBOD.

“We would like to clarify as follow; processing companies in Ghana established post November 2001 are permitted by law to import cocoa beans for processing in Ghana”.

According to the statement, the practice is to help the companies meet their desired recipes for chocolate production and other uses.