Only influential NDC members enjoyed free fertilizer initiative - Cocobod CEO

Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo has alleged that only highly placed members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) enjoyed the benefits of the free fertilizer policy during their term in government.

According to him, though the NDC through John Dramani Mahama reviewed the subsidy policy of cocoa fertilizer as introduced by John Agyekum Kufuor, barely a handful of the farmers felt the benefits of the policy.

To top it all, he indicated this marked the beginning of fertilizer smuggling which was heavily perpetrated under former President Mahama’s watch, all to the peril of needy cocoa farmers in rural areas.

Speaking at NPP’s weekly press conference in Accra, October 5, 2020, Mr. Boahen Aidoo said, “in Ghana…former President John Agyekum Kufuor…brought in subsidy policy because that is what is done in America…and those developed countries. But when it comes to developing countries it is an open market, no subsidy…”

“That was what was done and then Prof Atta Mills came and continued then in 2013-2014 when former President John Mahama came, he changed the policy to make it free. Immediately you make it free it…people who are not even in the cocoa industry jump in to look for fertilizer…,” he explained.

However, without any substantive evidence to back his claims, he argued that “…we have people who were not even farmers taking fertilizers, people who were influential in the NDC party, they were taking the fertilizer." We were all here, we heard a certain politician’s father who was trying to smuggle fertilizer across the borders…So the fertilizer went to family, friends, and cronies…those who needed fertilizer most were not getting it…”