The Minority in Parliament has criticized the government’s directive ordering the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to immediately pay cocoa farmers, describing the move as ineffective and raising concerns about the Board’s financial position.
Reacting to the directive at a press conference in Parliament, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah argued that during the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, payments to cocoa farmers were made regularly and did not require Cabinet emergency interventions.
“In the previous NPP era, payment of cocoa farmers was a matter of regular procedure. Now emergency Cabinet meetings are being called just for purposes of paying cocoa farmers,” he stated.
The former Information Minister questioned the practicality of government’s announcement for COCOBOD to pay farmers without clarifying whether the Board currently has the financial capacity to do so.
“The announcement that COCOBOD should immediately pay them (farmers) is of no effect. Because that announcement presumes that COCOBOD has the money and was deliberately refusing to pay the farmers. Is that what was going on?” he asked.
According to him, if the issue is a liquidity challenge, the appropriate step would be for government to facilitate emergency financial support rather than simply issuing a directive.
“Unless you are saying the money was available and COCOBOD was refusing, then what the government should be doing specifically is instructing that emergency liquidity assistance should be released to COCOBOD to pay the farmers — not an announcement that they should be paid,” he argued.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the situation raises more questions than answers and called for greater transparency regarding COCOBOD’s financial standing and the measures being taken to address payment delays.
Read also: Read the reforms for immediate implementation in the cocoa sector as announced by Finance Minister
The government has recently indicated that it is taking steps to stabilize the cocoa sector and ensure prompt payments to farmers, amid broader reforms aimed at restructuring COCOBOD’s finances and operations.
The Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson on Thursday announced that Cabinet has directed COCOBOD to commence immediate payment of all affected cocoa farmers.
As part of the reforms for the sector, Government is set to present a COCOBOD Bill to Parliament to implement an automatic adjustment of producer price to align with movement in the world market price, exchange rate, and other key variables and guarantee a minimum of 70% of the gross FOB price to be paid to cocoa farmers.
