The Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo has emphasized government’s commitment to set up a cocoa farmers pension scheme for all cocoa farmers across the country.
Speaking to cocoa farmers, he stated that COCOBOD is working closely with the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to put in place the necessary measures to attend to the pension needs of cocoa farmers.
“let me assure my cherished farmers that we are almost at the completion stage of our discussion. very soon, you will all have a befitting pension scheme”, he stated
The COCOBOD CEO was addressing farmers at Nyinahin in the Ashanti Region, as part of his three-day tour of the region to interact with cocoa farmers and address some of the challenges facing them.
According to him, COCOBOD is committed to improving the needs of the cocoa farmer, hence, the introduction of the Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs) to help boost productivity as well as the livelihoods of farmers.
Mr Aidoo said COCOBOD would continue to provide the needed incentive to motivate the farmers.
He however urged the hand pollinators to work harder since the success of the hand pollination exercise is dependent on them.
The new Polinators recruited by COCOBOD are either unemployed Junior/Senior High School (J/SHS) graduates or dropouts, adding that in 2017, 350 pollinators were engaged, as against 450 in 2018.
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The objective of the programme was to recruit 30,000 pollinators nationwide to scale up the national production of cocoa beans from 800,000 metric tonnes per annum to 1 million metric tonnes.
