Former Head of Corporate Affairs at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Fiifi Boafo, has said the government’s decision to process 50 per cent of cocoa beans produced in the country will not solve the challenges in the sector.
Boafo, who is also a member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the percentage is inadequate, compared to what is already being processed domestically.
Speaking on the BigIssue segment on the NewDay morning show on TV3 Wednesday, February 18, 2026, he noted that the country was already processing 42 per cent of beans produced in the country, and adding merely 8 per cent was not enough to salvage the current situation facing the sector.
“At the time the NPP took over, we were processing about 23%. By the time the NPP was leaving government, we were processing about 42% locally. So if the President says we are to go 50%, granted we go by the 50%, we will go up just by 8%.
“How significant would that be and how will that impact on the industry? That is why I’m saying that, it does not address the problem,” he stated.
He also questioned the kind of processing the President is referring to, indicating that primary processing of the bean which is mostly done in the country is not the surest bet for the industry but rather the tertiary.
According to him, Ghana lacks the wherewithal to go into tertiary processing where much of the revenue from the sector goes.
“What type of processing is he referring to? Is it primary, secondary or tertiary? Already what we are doing is largely primary, of course it adds some value, but comparatively, the chunk of the resources within the industry is in those who are doing tertiary processing.”
His comments come on the back of President John Dramani Mahama’s declaration that Ghana needs to seize the opportunity presented by the current crisis in the global cocoa market to fundamentally shift away from the instability of raw material exports.
Speaking at the opening of the Ghana Tree Crops Investment Summit & Exhibition at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, the President emphasised the urgent need for value addition across the country’s agricultural export sector.
“Recently, we’ve had a crisis with cocoa. It hasn’t affected only Ghana; it has affected all cocoa-producing countries,” President Mahama stated.
“It shows how unstable raw material exports are if you don’t process and add value. We must take advantage of this crisis to make a pivotal change in how we handle our raw exports.”
His comments come at a time when Ghana’s once-reliable cocoa sector is facing one of its most severe liquidity crises in decades.
The summit, a four-day event themed “Sustainable Growth Through Tree Crop Investments: Resetting and Building Ghana’s Green Economy,” aims to attract investment and shift focus toward processing six priority crops: cashew, shea, oil palm, coconut, rubber, and mango.
The President, amid the crisis, personally connected with the struggles of the cocoa farmers, revealing his own stake in the sector.
“I want to share an example from my own farm. I was given 50 acres of land, and I planted cocoa on it, so I am a cocoa farmer,” he told the gathering.
“When the government reduces the price of cocoa, it affects me too. I want to empathize with farmers so that when we make policy decisions, we understand their impact on families.”
