All ongoing road projects for cocoa in the country will be finished, according to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

It also said no new project would be initiated due to the current Government financial bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to COCOBOD's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the careful, sustainable production of the EU and IMF programme allowed the continuation of ongoing projects.

Addressing journalists at a symposium to mark the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Cocoa Clinic.

The building of cocoa roads is intended to help resolve transportation issues relating to the delivery of agricultural inputs to cocoa farmers and to facilitate the evacuation of cocoa beans.

As a result of the roads, residents of cocoa-growing areas have easy access to healthcare and other essential social amenities.

“The EU sent a team last year to do due diligence on sustainable production and, a member of the delegation wanted to know why COCOBOD has been involved in cocoa roads construction because it is not a core business of COCOBOD, and the said member of delegation insisted that we take that venture out of our equation, and the IMF is also saying the same thing. They say that we can continue with what we are currently constructing and not start new ones,” Mr Boahen reportedly said.

According to Mr. Boahen, the opening of medical facilities in cocoa-growing areas will improve farmers' access to healthcare and ease their travel burden.

“I have had the experience where a woman, who was in labour and couldn’t deliver in 2001 had to be carried in a hammock and travelled over 28 kilometers and couldn’t survive.

“When we look at the countryside to see how our cocoa farmers struggle to access health delivery, you will be touched to do something, that is why, as an institution, it is important to bring health services and facilities closer to these farmers as possible,” Mr Boahen stated.