COCOBOD now a burden on farmers – IMANI Vice President

Vice-President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has launched a scathing critique of Ghana’s cocoa sector management, accusing the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) of failing the very farmers it was created to support.

In an interview on Saturday, August 23, Mr Bentil argued that COCOBOD has become a bloated, ineffective institution that drains resources from poor farmers while enriching urban elites who have little to no connection with cocoa production.

He contrasted Ghana’s cocoa legacy with its present mismanagement, recalling how cocoa revenue was once used for nation-building initiatives such as the establishment of the University of Ghana.

“If you know the history, the University of Ghana was built from a simple idea, let’s take a bit of money from each bag of cocoa. That’s why we have Akuafo Hall. That’s how strategic cocoa revenues used to be,” he explained.

Bentil lamented that today, those who benefit most from the cocoa sector are not farmers, but bureaucrats and officials far removed from the realities of farming.

“People sitting in Accra, who can’t even identify a cocoa tree, are the ones profiting. It doesn’t make sense to take money from poor, hardworking farmers and hand it over to suit-wearing elites in air-conditioned offices,” he said.

Bentil went as far as to suggest that scrapping COCOBOD could improve both the economy and the livelihoods of farmers.

“If we collapse COCOBOD today, Ghana’s economy will be better off, and farmers will thrive. They are capable of organising themselves without this outdated institution,” he concluded.