The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo has reiterated that the reward mechanism instituted for fighting cocoa smuggling is still in force.
This reinforcement follows the recent uptick in cocoa smuggling outside Ghana to neighbouring countries in search of a better price.
The COCOBOD CEO reveals that the country in the last two years lost about 120,000 metric tonnes of cocoa to smuggling each year. This recent surge in smuggling comes despite the recent increases in the price of cocoa beans by the government.
The price of cocoa from the last two adjustments has seen a very close to 130% increase. A development the Minister for Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong describes as unprecedented.
Given the surge in the menace, the CEO of COCOBOD, in a media briefing on Monday, October 14. 2024 re-echoed that there is a policy in place to reward Ghanaians and security officers who help the state arrest cocoa smugglers.
Dr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo maintains that any cocoa smuggling informant and the arresting security officer are entitled to two-thirds of the value of the cocoa beans arrested. That is, the informant and the security officer who undertook the arrest are rewarded with about 65% of the value of the cocoa en route to be smuggled.
“For Ghana, we have a policy in place. If any cocoa is accosted, the arresting officer and the informant are entitled to two-thirds of the value. Now that the bag of cocoa is GHC 3000, if you bring contraband cocoa, you receive GHC 2000 for every bag,” the CEO insisted.
He further noted that this reward policy is not mere rhetoric, but that it’s something authorities are implementing to ensure that people are encouraged to report miscreants smuggling cocoa produced in Ghana.
He revealed that “recently, about over 1000 bags of cocoa were arrested somewhere in Dambai and we have paid the number of bags times GHC 2000.”
Meanwhile, about 100 bags of smuggled cocoa were recently confiscated by the Anti-Cocoa Smuggling Taskforce of COCOBOD in the Asuogyaman Districts.
