Cocoa from Ghana renew interest in Ghana sports

Cocoa from Ghana, a Dutch-Ghanaian initiative which aims to raise awareness for its product has adopted the Ghana Olympic Committee GOC and wishes to support the development and promotion of Ghana Sports.

A few days on assumption office, the new leadership of the GOC led by Ben Nunoo Mensah and the GOC Media met officials of Cocoa from Ghana for a briefing on the agreement to support Ghana Sports.

Cocoa from Ghana were represented by Joost Bellaart and Edwige Dessein who explained into detail their aims and objectives, as well as the returns they expect.

The relationship between Ghana and the Netherlands and the goodwill of the people of the two nations created the contact as the global demand for cocoa is approximately 4.2 million tonnes, 800,000 tonnes of which comes from Ghana. With Amsterdam as the world’s largest transhipment port for cocoa beans, the Netherlands is a major trading partner for the Ghanaian cocoa industry.

Cocoa from Ghana supports many different sports. The same qualities – commitment, collaboration, and outstanding results – apply equally to professional sports and the production of high-quality cocoa. In the Netherlands, Cocoa from Ghana is a sponsor of the Dutch women’s handball team to safeguard the continuity of handball as top-level sport.



This coming June marks the second year of the introduction of the sponsorship of the Ghana Olympic Committee with the intention to extend this sponsorship to the 2020 Olympic Games.

Cocoa from Ghana is also an official sponsor of the West African Football Academy (WAFA) which was founded by the Feyenoord Football Academy, as well as the Dutch Female Handball team.

Cocoa from Ghana wants to make a contribution to the future of Ghana’s sports men and women with the formation of the Ghana Sports Development Foundation., with the sole ambition of getting other corporate sponsors for Ghana’s Gold medals hunt at international meets, the main target being the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Cocoa from Ghana, founded in 2015 also aims to raise international awareness and communicate the link between Ghana and the Netherlands, to support the cocoa industry to continue to play a relevant role in the world.

The Ghana Sports Development Plan will focus on potential successful sports disciplines in Ghana, such as Track & Field, Swimming, Judo, Fencing, Boxing, Beach Volleyball and Hockey, where Dutch Sports Federations and coaches will support their Ghanaian counterparts.

He hinted that the position taken is for awareness in Ghana of the Sports Development Plan to be taken very serious, raise positive image for Ghana and Cocoa from Ghana as well as progressive impressive results for Ghanaian sports personnel.



Joost Belaart, also spokes person for Ghana Sports Development Foundation said the vision is to realise acceleration in results of Ghanaian sports in a short time and guarantee continuity in a long term by creating structure from basics of sports in Ghana.

The key values that both the GOC and Cocoa from Ghana wish to achieve is team work, performance, women empowerment and transparency.

However, major emphasis would be placed on sports like, Track & Field, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Fencing and Swimming, as the Foundation remains keen on the development and improvement on Social Media for the GOC and the various disciplines, cordial Media / Press relations and frequent interactions in the Mass Media.

Ben Nunoo Mensah, the GOC President expressed is happiness over the deal and promised that efforts would be made to sign the contract for work to start as the Olympics may be far, but near, with the Commonwealth Games coming up next year, and the Commonwealth Youth Games just this July.

Meanwhile, Ignitious Gaisah, one of Ghana's top athletes who switched nationality to Holland has been appointed an ambassador for Cocoa from Ghana, and he is to motivate and contribute to the training of budding Ghanaian athletes.