Akufo-Addo's govt don't have a strategy for cocoa roads - Inusah Fuseini fires

Former Roads Minister in the erstwhile Mahama government, Inusah Fuseini, has slammed the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government for lacking the strategy to construct cocoa roads in the country.

According to him, the NDC government under former President John Dramani Mahama started executing the cocoa roads according to a strategy to stop the cocoa farmers from selling their produce to Ivory Coast.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Inusah Fuseini said that as cocoa purchasing is a business, the NDC government decided to charge COCOBOD to pay extra duties to the government from the loan they go for to buy the cocoa from the farmers.

He stressed that the strategy of the NDC government was to take 150 million dollars from the loan for the purpose of doing cocoa roads in the country; thus, the then government had a 5-year plan to construct the cocoa roads.

"What is affecting the NPP government is that it lacks a plan and strategy for the construction of the cocoa roads. We were executing the cocoa roads according to a strategy. We know that every year, Ghana will go for a loan to buy cocoa . . ."

" . . We decided to do that project for a period of 5 years. In 5 years, we have programmed to spend 750 million dollars on cocoa roads alone, and so there was cash flow and a reasonable expectation of where the money will come from,” he explained.

“When the NPP came to power they said we were awarding contracts when there was no money at COCOBOD; meanwhile, from the time they came up to now, every year they go for loans to buy cocoa and what happens to the money they take?”, he wondered.