The Spokesperson for the Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association, Nana Aduna II, has criticised the consultation process preceding the passage of the Ghana Cocoa Board Bill, 2026, describing it as inadequate and poorly managed.

His criticism follows President John Mahama’s assent to the bill on Wednesday, August 26, bringing the legislation into force.

Speaking on JoyFM's Super Morning Show on Thursday, August 27, Nana Aduna II said legislation of such importance should have been subjected to extensive engagement with cocoa farmers and other stakeholders before being presented to Parliament.

“The consultation period and the people who were consulted were very poor,” he said.

According to him, he was not personally consulted by COCOBOD before the bill was submitted to Parliament and only became aware of it when it was presented under a certificate of urgency.

“Myself, personally, no. I only actually heard about it when it was presented under a certificate of urgency,” he said when asked whether COCOBOD had engaged him.

Although he acknowledged that some farmer organisations might have participated in the consultation process, Nana Aduna II maintained that the engagement was not broad enough to reflect the concerns of farmers across the country.

“The consultation has to be a lot more extensive and much longer. I do not think it is right that such an important bill was passed under a certificate of urgency,” he said.

Similar concerns were raised before the President assented to the legislation. On August 11, the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Association Limited called for the assent to be delayed to allow wider consultation and public education.

The association said some farmers did not fully understand provisions that designated cocoa farms as protected lands and restricted their conversion to other uses without COCOBOD’s approval.

The Minority in Parliament also urged the President not to sign the bill until additional consultations had been held. Former Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture in charge of Cocoa Affairs, Yaw Frimpong Addo, argued that key participants in the cocoa value chain, including hauliers, had been excluded from the process.

He also said Parliament’s Agriculture Committee leadership was brought into the consideration process too late, describing COCOBOD’s post-passage consultations as “putting the cart before the horse”.

The New Patriotic Party similarly alleged that the bill was laid before Parliament on July 28 and passed within the same week without sufficient engagement with farmers, landowners and other industry stakeholders. It consequently asked the President to return it to Parliament for wider consultation.

COCOBOD, however, rejected claims that the legislation was rushed, maintaining that it underwent expert review and clause-by-clause scrutiny in Parliament. It also began nationwide stakeholder engagements after the bill’s passage, starting with farmer organisations, civil society groups and licensed cocoa buyers.