The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has described the government’s newly announced cocoa sector reforms as a sign of weakness and incompetence, arguing that farmers should have been cushioned with a bailout instead of being subjected to price reduction.
Reacting to the reforms in an exclusive interview on TV3, Friday, February 13 , Mr. Kodua said the government’s approach risks distorting the cocoa market and disrupting supply flows in the middle of the season.
“It shows the weakness and failure, the incompetence of the government,” he stated. “We are in the middle of a cocoa season and projections have been made from the point of cultivation to the point of sale. You don’t distort the market, you don’t distort the supply flow.”
According to him, the appropriate short-term strategy would have been for government to provide a financial bailout to cocoa farmers to cushion them against prevailing challenges rather than reducing cocoa producer price per bag.
“As a government in the interim or short term, your strategy would have been to provide a bailout to cushion the farmers. That is what they should have done,” he argued.
Mr. Kodua further noted that cocoa pricing is based on projections and market trends, and therefore government must play a stabilizing role rather than taking measures that could negatively impact farmers.
“In the medium term, because it is based on projections, what if the price goes up tomorrow? That is why government is there — to provide what it calls price stabilization,” he added.
The government has defended its cocoa sector reforms as necessary to restore financial stability and sustainability within the industry. However, the NPP insists that protecting farmers’ incomes should have been the immediate priority.
The Minority in Parliament has demanded an immediate removal of the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Randy Abbey from his duty for what they have described as a failed reset agenda that has crippled the wellbeing of millions of cocoa farmers.
Cocoa farmers have complained about delay in payment since November 2025. In an effort to address the crisis in the sector, government convened an emergency Cabinet meeting to implement comprehensive reforms for the sector.
The caucus says government’s announcement of a reduction in the cocoa producer price is a total rip off and the worst reform the NDC administration could implement.
Ranking on the Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah at a press conference in Parliament, said the demand stem from decisions taken by COCOBOD which they claim have negatively affected cocoa farmers.
“We in the Minority have a number of requests to government. All of these have come about because of the reset that COCOBOD did and that is why, respectfully, we ask the President to relieve the COCOBOD CEO of his responsibilities at this point in time,” he said.
