Kumasi, Aug. 6, GNA - Kuapa Kokoo Company Limited has secured a US$5,000,000 loan from a United-Kingdom based financial firm, "Comic Relief", to beef up its operations.

Mr Paul Celestine Buah, out-going President of the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union, said the loan was facilitated by the Divine Chocolate Limited (DCL), another UK company, which the Union is shareholder.

He was addressing the opening session of the 16th Annual Delegates Conference of the Union at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on Friday.

"The new extension system for cocoa farmers in Ghana - a solution to cocoa sustainability" was the theme.

Mr Buah told the meeting that the Union's total dividend receipts on its DCL shares, since 2007, stood at GH¢170,752.00 and vowed to continue working with the company by increasing their shares.

He said over the past years they had entered into a number of partnership agreements for the singular purpose of improving the condition of the Ghanaian farmer.

Mr Buah said Kuapa Kokoo's core business is to produce cocoa and would therefore go to every length to enhance its operations to bring comfort to farmers.

He said Kuapa Kokoo was constructing schools, water and sanitation facilities and installing corn mills to better the lives of people in cocoa growing areas.

Additionally, he said, the Union had embarked on environmental programmes to help to protect the ecosystem.

Reverend Kweku Abaka-Ewusi, Executive Director, Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease Control Unit (CSSVDCU) of the Ghana Cocoa Board, urged all agents trained under the new cocoa extension programme to work hard to assist farmers to adopt improved farming techniques to raise crop yield.