Audio By Carbonatix
Board Chairman of COCOBOD, Hackman Owusu Agyeman says it is unfortunate that although Ghana makes at least $1.3 billion a year as revenue from cocoa, the sector is yet to produce millionaires or billionaires.
According to the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the reason for this is the inability of small scale farmers to manage their own affairs without superiors.
Speaking to JoyNews' Emefa Apawu on The Probe, Mr. Agyeman said the process involved in supervising the farmer is also expensive as they are widely spread across the country.
Regardless, he stated that COCOBOD as an institution had set into operation measures to enhance the productivity of farmers since according to him, the sector is the only industry that brings huge amounts of foreign exchange.
"All the other industries bring in this small, small trickling in foreign exchange,
"And we (COCOBOD) coming in helps the Bank of Ghana in what it does in trying to manage the foreign exchange," he stated in the interview.
He explained that sadly the farmers get less than what they deserve for their hard work since revenues that come in also compensate for other aspects of the sector.
“They should get more than what they are getting now, ordinarily, we must give them all the money but it doesn't work like that, there are various institutions and other aspects of the industry that must be catered for," he said.
He expressed hope in President Akufo-Addo to implement hurriedly the Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme to aid hardworking farmers who have devoted their lives to making the cocoa sector vibrant.
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