The current challenges facing cocoa farmers are the creation of the current Mahama administration, Member of Parliament for Walewale, Dr. Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama, has said.
He said that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), when in opposition, played politics with cocoa and created the impression that they had all the solutions to the challenges.
“The cocoa situation is self-inflicted. They made politics with cocoa, creating the impression that cocoa farmers are worse off under the NPP,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, February 28.
He stressed, “What is happening to the Cocoa sector today is a self-inflicted problem, and this government must simply apologise to farmers and take responsibility for it. This government has failed to fulfil promises it made to Cocoa farmers before the elections. The NDC has forgotten they left the financial sector in crisis before 2016 and we had to fix it with more than 30 billion cedis.”
Prior to his comments, the Minister of Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, had said on the same show that the reduction in the prices of cocoa was to save the economy.
Kwakye Ofosu made the point that the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration destroyed the economy, with several challenges in the cocoa sector.
The current Mahama administration, he said, is addressing the challenges.
“The NPP completely collapsed the Cocoa sector. The current adjustment we are making to Cocoa prices is in the best interest of the Country and it will help us save the economy,” he said.
“The price reduction is not what we promised cocoa farmers, but it is to save this economy,” he added.
Earlier, while delivering the state of the nation address in parliament on Thursday, February 27, President John Dramani Mahama said that “In the last few weeks, we have had to take the painful but necessary decision to revise the producer price of Cocoa to achieve competitive pricing and resolve acute liquidity challenges in the sector.
“Failure to do so would have meant pumping in billions of borrowed funds. This unplanned expenditure would have taken us right back to the very devastating economic problems we have only recently begun to escape.”
He added “So, while fully understanding the concerns and protests of our farmers, I can firmly assure them that the reforms announced by the government will bring about a total transformation of the sector and guarantee them a fair price that enables them to cover the cost of producing the commodity and make decent margins.
“The difference between facing economic hardships and avoiding them is the exercise of sound economic judgement, and I am determined to make decisions that ensure our collective well-being and avoid suffering for all our citizens.”
