President Akufo-Addo says plans are underway to process 50% of cocoa beans domestically under a three-year program.
He believes this would aid in the government’s commitment to add value to Ghana’s raw cocoa materials and enhance agricultural productivity in the long run.
Speaking at a dialogue session at the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Friday, May 27, President Akufo-Addo revealed that the country may lose its future prosperity if it continues to maintain structures that largely depend on the export of raw materials.
“We’ve set certain limits with COCOBOD whereby I believe it’s over three years; we want to have 50 percent of the output of our farmers being processed domestically,” he said.
The global cocoa industry rakes in $100 billion annually but Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, who together produce more than 60 percent of the world’s cocoa, account for only $6 billion of that amount.
President Akufo-Addo disclosed that there are ongoing plans to turn the situation around. He noted that currently, all the values in the sector are created outside Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
“…we can then now develop in such a way that we have entities in our country which can address this deficiency.”
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
The President called on wealthy economies to re-channel a portion of their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) sitting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Africa to help fight hunger and food security.
The SDRs could be disbursed through the AfDB for investment in projects critical to the recovery of the economies.
“This is also expected to help finance and capitalise African public development banks. Providing the SDRs for multilateral development banks will also strengthen the global financial architecture and foster greater complementary with the IMF,” he said.
“I welcome the leadership of the AfDB Group to explore options for the strategic use of the SDRs to support Africa and note that providing SDRs through multilateral development banks has several benefits.”