Finance Minister inaugurates COCOBOD, SSNIT Boards
Accra, June 11, Ghanadot/GNA
– Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning, on Thursday charged the 10-member governing Board
of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), to adopt strategies to
help attract educated youth into cocoa farming to replace
the ageing farmers.
He said growth of the cocoa industry had been very slow and
stunted due mainly to the ageing cocoa farmers.
Dr. Duffuor, therefore, asked the Board to draw up
programmes and provide incentives to ensure that educated
youth and children of the ageing farmers move into cocoa
farming in large numbers, required to grow and sustain the
industry.
“The old generation of cocoa farmers has to be succeeded by
new and enthusiastic ones. The new cadre of cocoa farmers
should not only be technologically knowledgeable but also
have all the necessary support and incentives to expand the
country’s production to its full potential,” he said.
The Minister urged the Board to work towards expanding cocoa
production to enable the country re-capture its position as
the world’s leading producer of the crop.
Dr. Duffuor said attention must also be given to processing
of cocoa beans locally, especially the problem of irregular
supply of beans to the local processing plants.
He said “We need to reassure our manufacturers of regular
supply of beans so that the factories can plan their
operations properly”.
Dr. Duffuor asked the Board members to be guided by good
corporate governance rules as well as to avoid conflict of
interest.
He said situations in which some personnel in the cocoa
industry had registered companies and were awarded contracts
to cart fertilizers, haul cocoa, and undertake procurement
of goods and services for COCOBOD must cease.
Dr. Duffuor urged COCOBOD to take a second look at the
policy of making export duty payment a residual issue.
He also asked COCONOD to explore the possibility of
introducing a fixed percentage of the net FOB price as
export duty payment to shore up government revenue from the
sector.
Dr Percival Kuranchie, Chairman of the Board, assured the
Minister of members’ readiness to bring their experience and
expertise to bear in transforming the fortunes of the
industry.
Meanwhile, Dr Duffuor had inaugurated the reconstituted
Board of Trustees of the Social Security and National
Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and urged members to bring their
expertise to bear in roping into the scheme the 90 percent
of Ghanaians, who were not covered.
He charged the 13-member Board to give impetus to the drive
to ensure that the informal sector, where majority of the
active working population were concentrated, to join the
scheme.
Dr Duffuor urged them to address delays in the processing of
benefits and payment of pensions.
The Minister asked the Board to take bold decisions in
addressing issues of poor investment, uncompleted projects
and non-performing assets.
Dr Duffuor said “Exit strategies must be considered for the
non-performing assets and issues surrounding uncompleted
projects must be addressed and resolved in the shortest
possible time. We expect to see a much better investment
portfolio with enhanced yields”.
Mr. Kwame Peprah, Board Chairman, assured the Minister that
members would be vigilant and protect the resources of SSNIT.
GNA
