In recent days, we have all heard about COCOBOD not being able to pay investors due to cash flow challenges. This situation has caused a lot of distress to these investors considering the dire economic situation Ghana faces.
In 2017, the President moved COCOBOD from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Agriculture as supervising Ministry. Mr. Afriyie Akoto, then Minister of Agriculture, was tasked to reform and make the company profitable. 6 years on, COCOBOD is worse than when it was handed to Mr. Afriyie Akoto.
I want the media and the public to help me ask Mr. Afriyie Akoto, who wants to be president of Ghana, to tell us what he did during his tenure as Agriculture Minister. What reforms did he put in place that has taken the company from bad to worse?
Before I proceed, let me give a few numbers to help you understand what COCOBOD’s revenue looks like every year. We buy cocoa from the farmer at $1,508 per tonne ( using the 2021/22 crop season price). The world market price for the same cocoa within that period was $2,550 per tonne. Meaning COCOBOD makes a Gross margin of $1,042 per tonne. The average yield a year is around 700,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, which gives us a total gross margin of $729.4 million ( US dollars ) for last year alone.
I understand that prices do fluctuate, but there is no time that we sell the cocoa bean less than we buy from the local farmer. The amount of gross revenue may be lower in some seasons than others.
I am aware that in 2013, COCOBOD took GHc 1.99 billion for 10 years from the Bank of Ghana, and as of 2021, the balance outstanding was GHc 1.38 billion.
We are all aware that COCOBOD has been used and abused as a cash cow for a lot of people for so long. My question to Mr. Afriyie Akoto is very simple:
1 . What presentation or discussion did you have with the President for COCOBOD to be moved from the Finance Ministry to Agriculture?
2 . What reforms or restructuring did you propose to the management of the company to change the fortunes of the company?
3 . Did you review the performance of the company year on year to see if, under your leadership, it is doing well or worse than before?
It is no secret that I Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, want to stand as flagbearer of the NPP. I daresay that anyone is free to question my leadership or management of my companies.
As a member of CSOs in Ghana, I believe that before any Minister wants to be president, he should tell us why a company he supervised has gone from bad to worse in 6 years.
