On Monday, March 10, 2025, major news portals and social media platforms in Ghana were dominated by reports attributed to the Chairman of both SCANCOM and MANTRAC Ghana Limited, who doubles as the Chair of the National Economic Dialogue, Dr. Ishmael Yamson.
The headlines quoted him as saying: “Get rid of COCOBOD, it’s serving a bad purpose.”
The statement was reportedly made during an interview on TV3’s Hot Issues programme on Sunday, March 9, 2025.
Shortly thereafter, similar views were echoed by the Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, during Joy News’ Newsfile programme on August 23, 2025.
Bentil argued that Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has become a burden on the very farmers it was established to support and asserted that dismantling the institution could benefit both farmers and the national economy.
According to him, “If we collapse COCOBOD today, Ghana’s economy will be better and farmers will be better. They can organize themselves absolutely.”
I find these parallel calls by these two highly respected public figures very intriguing and preposterous, to say the least.
However, despite the gravitas of their opinions, their assertions betray a limited appreciation of the statutory mandate, institutional architecture, and operational realities of COCOBOD.
This write-up therefore seeks, respectfully, to clarify why calls to scrap COCOBOD are not only misguided but also potentially harmful to the sustainability of Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Far from being obsolete, COCOBOD remains a central pillar in positioning Ghana as the world’s second-largest cocoa producer and the leading source of premium-quality cocoa beans globally.
This status is not accidental; it is the outcome of deliberate institutional regulation, quality assurance, farmer support, and market coordination—functions that COCOBOD continues to perform despite the numerous challenges confronting the sector.
Historical Context and Legal Mandate
Ghana Cocoa Board was established in 1947 as the Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB) to regulate the cocoa industry in the then Gold Coast. This explains why some of our elderly folks, mostly in rural areas, still refer to COCOBOD as CMB.
The creation of CMB was borne out of the 1937 cocoa hold-up, a protest against low cocoa producer prices that underscored the need for a structured regulatory and marketing framework.
The institution’s foundational objective was to protect cocoa farmers, stabilize prices, and support the long-term development of the cocoa economy.
This commitment was symbolized by the construction of the CMB head office, known as Cocoa House, in Accra in 1961 under the able leadership of Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The enactment of the Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 1984 (P.N.D.C. Law 81) re-established the institution under its current name—Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)—and clearly defined its mandate.
The law tasks COCOBOD with encouraging and facilitating the production, processing, and marketing of high-quality cocoa, coffee, and shea.
Central to this mandate is the regulation of producer prices, the promotion of productivity, farmer welfare, value addition, and Ghana’s competitiveness in the global cocoa market.
Why COCOBOD Still Matters
COCOBOD’s relevance extends beyond price regulation. It plays a critical coordinating role across the entire cocoa value chain, ensuring stability, quality assurance, and farmer support.
Through the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC), COCOBOD guarantees fair, decent, and satisfactory cocoa prices at the start of each crop season, shielding farmers from international price volatility and ensuring predictable incomes.
Employment is another significant dimension of COCOBOD’s relevance. The institution provides direct employment to over 10,000 Ghanaians and indirect employment to tens of thousands more through Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), haulage firms, and allied services.
At this critical time of rising unemployment, the call to scrap COCOBOD is not only disingenuous but also tricky, as this would translate into mass job losses and severe socio-economic consequences—an outcome that cannot be dismissed lightly.
Technical, Research, and Extension Functions
It is instructive to note that COCOBOD’s subsidiaries are indispensable to sustainable cocoa production:
• Seed Production Division (SPD) produces and distributes millions of disease-resistant, early-maturing, and high-yielding hybrid cocoa seedlings, as well as economic shade trees, free of charge to farmers. Without this intervention, access to reliable planting materials would be severely constrained.
• Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) provides agronomic and extension services, facilitates the supply of fertilizers and agro-chemicals, rehabilitates and leads the fight against diseased (mainly Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease, CSSVD) and moribund farms, which threaten nearly 40% of Ghana’s cocoa tree stock.
CHED also trains farmers in Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs) and Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) such as pruning, mass spraying, poultry manure application, and artificial hand pollination.
• Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) undertakes continuous research to improve yields, develop disease-resistant varieties, and promote sustainability.
• Quality Control Company (QCC) ensures that every cocoa bean exported from Ghana meets stringent international standards—a key reason Ghana remains the global benchmark for the production of premium-quality cocoa.
• Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) guarantees access to international markets and secures revenues for farmers and the state.
Comparative Perspective and Current Challenges
It is often argued that Côte d’Ivoire produces more cocoa without a COCOBOD-type institution. This comparison is misleading.
Côte d’Ivoire operates the Conseil du Café-Cacao, which performs similar regulatory functions. Moreover, Côte d’Ivoire has a significantly larger cocoa acreage—over 2.5 million hectares compared to Ghana’s approximately 1.5 million hectares—explaining its higher output.
The real threats to Ghana’s cocoa sector are well known: illegal mining (galamsey), which continues to destroy vast swathes of cocoa farmlands, and the growing impacts of climate change.
These existential challenges require coordinated institutional responses, not the dismantling of the very body mandated to address them.
Conclusion
While COCOBOD, like any public institution, faces operational and financial challenges, the solution lies in reform, efficiency, and accountability—not abolition.
Calls to scrap COCOBOD are therefore retrogressive and inimical to the long-term sustainability of Ghana’s cocoa economy.
What we need now as a country is a reformed, efficient, and financially sound COCOBOD—not its dissolution.
May God bless our homeland, Ghana, and make us great and strong.
You may contact him via [email protected] or +233244998919
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