Cocoa seedlings importation: Pressure group urges Akufo-Addo to sack COCOBOD CEO

A pressure group called United Voices for Change (U. V. C.) has called on the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency sack the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo over what they describe as "rot, super incompetence and thievery at the top management of the country's cocoa sector".

In a press statement signed and issued by its convener, Antwi Sylvestin Ronald, the group said the current developments in the country’s cocoa sector demand serious attention from the presidency and the government.

The call comes following a letter cited by the group suggesting that the Ghana COCOBOD under the current government and sector leadership is importing cocoa beans from Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria into the country.

The leadership of the U.V.C and other concerned CSOs wonder why Ghana, once the leading producer of Cocoa in the world and now second only to its West African neighbor Cote D’Ivoire is importing cocoa beans from Cote D'Ivoire and most surprisingly from Nigeria.

Read the full statement below:

Super incompetence and thievery at COCOBOD: Heads must roll:

Today marks a day of shame and pain for the unprofitable toil of our forefathers who through their painful hardworking, sweat, and the sharing of their blood bequeathed us one of the world’s valuable assets on the market like cocoa which forms a huge part in the general well-being of our economy and therefore, its not surprising seeing the poor deplorable, hopeless and uninspiring economy that we are in as a country.

GHANA which was once the leading producer of Cocoa in the world and is now second to only our West African neighboring Country La Cote D’voire is now importing cocoa beans from Nigeria and Cote D’voire and this reckless and incompetent action from Ghana COCOBOD only spells doom and danger ahead of us.

The mismanagement, misapplication of funds, thievery and create loot and share within the cocoa sectors under the incompetent leadership of Dr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo has brought us this low and is gradually sinking our revered cocoa prestige and pride Ghana holds in the world.

COCOBOD has over the years been so wasteful dating from 2018 to 2020 based on the SIGA report under the leadership of Dr. Aidoo. COCOBOD alone has accumulated a total debt of GH 786, 928,800 in just three years and the question is, what have they been doing over there, who is in charge of the accounts, daily transactions and where did those monies go? The hole created in our national economy largely also has to do with the mismanagement and thievery within the SOEs.

Just between the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 cocoa seasons, Ghana went down by 711,000 metric tonnes of cocoa just in one year and so, United Voices for Change is not surprised at all to see the shameful underbridge deal of trying to import COCOA BEANS from Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire which must be condemned in all uncertain terms and also with an explanation coming from the CEO on how we got here as a cocoa producing country?

The cocoa sector only accounts for 4.5% of the country’s total GDP and contributes a total of 25% of all Ghana merchandise export earnings which means that the cocoa sector in Ghana’s economy is very important and shouldn’t be toyed with nor be in this state of a mess.

Statistically, Ghana which is now trying to shamefully import Cocoa Beans together with Cote D’Ivoire accounts for almost 60% of the world’s total cocoa production and so, what exactly happened that today we have to start importing cocoa beans from a country that has never been better than us in cocoa production.

United Voices for Change is here to call on the President of the Republic of Ghana and his Vice, H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, and H.E. Dr. Bawumia as a matter of urgency to sack the CEO, Dr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo and his board to allow for new better hands to salvage the sorrowful situation of our cocoa sector if only they are not accomplice or in any way directly benefiting from this create loot and share within the sector.

“The citizens' freedom may be restricted by law on the grounds stated in the 1992 constitution but they cannot be denied. Any such denial will be unconstitutional” and clearly, the continuous stay of Dr. Joseph Aidoo is an infringement on the rights of Ghanaians and an upfront to the very laws that established and guides his operations as the CEO as per Article 4 of the Act that Governs the Management of State-owned Enterprises, “state-owned enterprises shall be operated in a manner benefiting a business so that they may be able to support themselves, achieve continuous development, and increase the national income without INCURRING LOSSES”, on this note, the wastages, and clear thievery is enough grounds for the removal of the various CEOs starting from Dr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo.

This is the call of responsibility on the president and in the days coming, we will come back to state our next line of actions based on the response of the president and his vice!