Children of non-cocoa farmers won't benefit from scholarship

Twifo Praso (C/R), June 14, GNA - The Ghana COCOBOD will no longer approve applications for scholarships for children whose parents are not cocoa farmers, Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive of the Ghana COCOBOD has announced.

Addressing about 500 cocoa farmers in the Twifo-Heman-Lower-Denkyira district in the central region at Twifo Praso to round off a day's working visit to cocoa farmers in the district, he said the scheme was for children of cocoa farmers and would not entertain applications from any other quarters.

The forum, organized by the COCOBOD was to among other things meet farmers, interact with them, know their problems, appraise the past main crop season and draw strategies for the next season.

It also deliberated on the mass cocoa spraying exercise, the scholarship scheme, child labour and the re-denomination of the cedi. He commended the District for producing high quality cocoa beans and appealed to the farmers not to allow cocoa clerks to buy their cocoa beans on credit.

The Chief Executive warned that any clerks caught cheating cocoa farmers would be made to face the full rigours of the law.

On child labour, Mr Osei said the best legacy parents could bequeath to their children was education and appealed to cocoa farmers to ensure that they gave quality education to their children. Mr Osei assured the youth of his outfit's preparedness to support those who wished to go into cocoa production.

Mr Patrick Smith-Assan, an official of the Bank of Ghana, took the farmers through the re-denomination of the cedi conversion and appealed to them to report to the police middlemen who might pose as officials of the bank to change their money for them.

According to him the Bank of Ghana had not mandated any official to transact business on its behalf in respect of the re-denomination of the cedi.

Mr Anto Boateng, Director of the COCOBOD Scholarship Scheme, explained the scheme to the farmers and said the board spends 15.2 billion cedis on scholarships for children of cocoa farmers annually. In a welcoming address Mr Samuel Agyeibie-Kessie, District Chief Executive said the Assembly in conjunction with European Union was constructing a 2.4 billion cedi Cocoa Museum at Frame near Jukwa. He said the EU had so far contributed 1.5 billion cedis towards it and that it was left with the Assembly's counterpart funding of 900 million cedis to be paid and appealed to the COCOBOD for assistance. Mr Osei promised to contribute 10 per cent of the amount towards the project. 14 June 07