President of the Concerned Cocoa Farmers Association, Nana Boateng Bonsu, has stated that Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) needs to be dissolved because it is failed.

Following concerns raised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the state-owned company's enormous annual losses posed a serious threat to the industry and government's fiscal efforts, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced last week that his office and the Bank of Ghana were in contact to set up a monitoring desk at COCOBOD to ensure discipline in the company's expenditure.

“Both the Governor of the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance – myself, will now be on the Board and we are also setting up a desk at the Finance Ministry that will interact with the finance division of COCOBOD to make sure the issues of fertilizers, cocoa road are all brought into an ambit of discipline. Those begin to tell you how we are getting into the issue of expenditure,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.

Mr Bonsu, in response to that move, however, said: "Cocobod is a collapsed institution", insisting: "We know it, we foresaw it and said it several times but they never listened".

"So, for this situation, we don’t need Ken Ofori-Atta and his people. What are they coming to do?” he wondered.

“If they had something better to offer, by now, Ghana’s economy would have shot up", Mr Bonsu noted.

He said: "They have nothing to offer. Cocoa farmers are capable of doing their own things" and demanded that "they should forget about Ken Ofori-Atta and his people".

“If they know COCOBOD has collapsed, we should know so that cocoa farmers can sell their products directly to the buyer to make our money rather than relying on the government, because the government has nothing better to offer the farmers,” he said.

“Right now, a lot of farmers are cutting down their cocoa trees and shifting to different crops all because they’ve realised that they have been enslaved for so many years", Mr Bonsu revealed.

In his view, “COCOBOD has put wax in their ears and are not listening to the farmers".

He complained that COCOBOD takes decisions willy-nilly without the input of the farmers.

"There’s nothing happening on the ground. There is no dialogue between farmers and COCOBOD. Anything that comes to them and they think it is beneficial to them or us, they just implement. There is nothing like an engagement or ‘let’s sit down with the farmers since they are those on the ground and see what they want’", he told Joy News on Monday, 23 October 2023.

COCOBOD was established through an ordinance in 1947 with the primary objective of promoting and facilitating the production, processing, and marketing of high-quality cocoa, coffee, and sheanut products in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Initially, COCOBOD was provided with ¢27 million, which represented Ghana's share of the net profit from the West African Produce Control Board, serving as its initial working capital.

The roots of COCOBOD can be traced back to the cocoa crisis of 1937. The Board initially operated from rented premises, utilizing the old facilities of the Export Produce Control Board on 28th February Road in Accra. Subsequently, it leased a portion of the Swan Mill, constructed by the United Africa Company Limited, at an annual cost of approximately ¢4,500. Afterward, COCOBOD acquired its own building.

In 1957, Ghana's first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, laid the foundation stone for Cocoa House at 41 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue in Accra, which was intended to serve as office space for the Board. The construction of Cocoa House was not only aimed at eliminating rental expenses but also stood as a tangible symbol of the Board's confidence in the future of the cocoa industry, serving as a living tribute to the dedication of Ghanaian farmers.

Cocoa House, a six-story building constructed at a cost of nearly ¢2 million, was officially commissioned in November 1960 by the late President. Besides housing COCOBOD, Cocoa House also accommodated offices for various foreign and local organizations, including Ethiopian Airlines and ARB Apex Bank.