Finance Minister inaugurates COCOBOD, SSNIT Boards

Accra, June 11, GNA - Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Thursday charged the 10-member governing Board of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), to adopt strategies to help attract educated youth into cocoa farming to replace the ageing farmers. He said growth of the cocoa industry had been very slow and stunted due mainly to the ageing cocoa farmers.

Dr. Duffuor, therefore, asked the Board to draw up programmes and provide incentives to ensure that educated youth and children of the ageing farmers move into cocoa farming in large numbers, required to grow and sustain the industry.

"The old generation of cocoa farmers has to be succeeded by new and enthusiastic ones. The new cadre of cocoa farmers should not only be technologically knowledgeable but also have all the necessary support and incentives to expand the country's production to its full potential," he said.

The Minister urged the Board to work towards expanding cocoa production to enable the country re-capture its position as the world's leading producer of the crop.

Dr. Duffuor said attention must also be given to processing of cocoa beans locally, especially the problem of irregular supply of beans to the local processing plants. He said "We need to reassure our manufacturers of regular supply of beans so that the factories can plan their operations properly". Dr. Duffuor asked the Board members to be guided by good corporate governance rules as well as to avoid conflict of interest. He said situations in which some personnel in the cocoa industry had registered companies and were awarded contracts to cart fertilizers, haul cocoa, and undertake procurement of goods and services for COCOBOD must cease.

Dr. Duffuor urged COCOBOD to take a second look at the policy of making export duty payment a residual issue. He also asked COCONOD to explore the possibility of introducing a fixed percentage of the net FOB price as export duty payment to shore up government revenue from the sector. Dr Percival Kuranchie, Chairman of the Board, assured the Minister of members' readiness to bring their experience and expertise to bear in transforming the fortunes of the industry. Meanwhile, Dr Duffuor had inaugurated the reconstituted Board of Trustees of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and urged members to bring their expertise to bear in roping into the scheme the 90 percent of Ghanaians, who were not covered. He charged the 13-member Board to give impetus to the drive to ensure that the informal sector, where majority of the active working population were concentrated, to join the scheme. Dr Duffuor urged them to address delays in the processing of benefits and payment of pensions. The Minister asked the Board to take bold decisions in addressing issues of poor investment, uncompleted projects and non-performing assets.

Dr Duffuor said "Exit strategies must be considered for the non-performing assets and issues surrounding uncompleted projects must be addressed and resolved in the shortest possible time. We expect to see a much better investment portfolio with enhanced yields". Mr. Kwame Peprah, Board Chairman, assured the Minister that members would be vigilant and protect the resources of SSNIT. 11 June 09