Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo has reiterated Government’s commitment to ensuring that the cocoa sector in the country is heavily invested in and explored to unleash its maximum potential.

Addressing development partners at the 2017 IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington D.C, he indicated that cocoa which produces a large chunk of revenue for the country has a potential to yield much higher results if more value is added to it.

“Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, we produce about 65% of the world’s cocoa raw materials, Ghana earned 2.1 billion dollars from its bean last year and Cote D’Ivoire earned 3.4 so between the two of us we earn 5.5 billion dollars from our cocoa business. The chocolate business last year was 106 billion dollars so that value added becomes obvious. 106 is the chain, we earned 6 billion and the chocolate producers earned a 100 billion.”

“Naturally, this is an area our President is upbeat about, we need to add value to our raw materials”.

He recommended that all other raw materials in the country be invested in since they contribute significantly to economic growth in the country.

“Not only cocoa but to most of the other raw materials. Ghana, like most African countries is a primary producer of raw materials and we need to add value to this.

He urged development partners to invest in the country’s raw materials to boost revenue. “Investors are welcome to add value to our raw materials, cocoa, gold, timber, cotton, a lot of them.

He emphasized government’s obligation to improve the economy and create job opportunities through private sector businesses. We believe that the fastest way to create employment for any country is to give room for the private sector to operate and operate freely and profitably. Our biggest problem in Ghana today is unemployment and the government system cannot create that employment, that employment can best be created through the window of private sector because we have the raw materials to enable the private sector develop”.

Yaw Osafo Marfo is leading the Ghanaian delegation to the 2017 IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington D.C.

The delegation made up of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, Planning Minister Prof Djan Bafour, Deputy Finance Minister Charlse Adu Boahen and Deputy Minister for Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is expected to showcase Ghana’s recent economic recovery efforts to international development partners as well as hold talks with stakeholders to secure more international support for Ghana ahead of the 2018 Budget.

The BoG Governor, Dr Addisson and his first Deputy Maxwell Afari, as well as a team of technical advisors from the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana, are also with the delegation.

The team will be pitching Ghana’s new economic policy direction and invite support from the global finance and development community.

The annual IMF/World Bank meetings are a platform to engage global finance and development agencies to secure commitment and support for a country’s economic and development agenda.

Ghana’s recent participation in similar international events have brought benefits such as inclusion in the G20 compact which will provide 120 Million Euro for the country.

The team is expected to return to Ghana by October 18, 2017.