Ongoing cocoa road projects will be completed, new ones won’t be initiated -COCOBOD

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has assured that the cocoa road projects currently under construction across the country will continue and be completed.

However, the Board has reiterated that it will not initiate any new cocoa road projects following the government’s ongoing engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This clarification from COCOBOD follows some media publications that all cocoa road projects have been put on hold following an order from the IMF.

COCOBOD insists that it has no direct interactions with the IMF as speculated.

“The only active IMF program is with the government, and not COCOBOD,” COCOBOD added in a statement.

The Cocoa Road Programme was initiated by COCOBOD to address transport challenges related to the delivery of agro-inputs to cocoa farmers and to facilitate the evacuation of cocoa beans.

Speaking to journalists at the 50th-anniversary celebration symposium of the Cocoa Clinic, CEO of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, explained that the cocoa roads were also intended to allow residents in cocoa-growing areas to have easy access to healthcare and other important social amenities to ensure rapid development.

“The EU sent a team last year to do due diligence on sustainable production and when they came, a member of the delegation wanted to know why COCOBOD has been involved in cocoa roads construction. Because it is not a core business of COCOBOD and the said member of delegation insisted that we take that venture out of our equation; and, the IMF is also saying the same thing. They say that we can continue with what we are currently constructing and not start new ones”, Mr Boahen hinted.

In addition, he outlined plans to establish healthcare centers in cocoa-growing communities to improve farmers’ access to medical care, citing instances of arduous travel for medical care as motivation.

“I have had the experience where a woman, who was in labour and couldn’t deliver in 2001 had to be carried in a hammock and travelled over 28 kilometers and couldn’t survive. And, when we look at the countryside to see how our cocoa farmers struggle to access health delivery. We will be touched to do something; and that is why, as an institution, it is important to bring health services and facilities as closer to these farmers as possible. This goes to illustrate the importance of the Cocoa roads projects embarked upon by the government,” he stated