Claim: The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, claims that during the tenure of Dr. Stephen Opuni as Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board under the Mahama led administration, production of one million metric tonnes of cocoa was recorded.
False! Data from the Ghana Cocoa Board shows that production of one million metric tonnes of cocoa was recorded during the 2010/2011 crop season under Anthony Fofie, a former Ghana Cocoa Board Chief Executive who served under the Atta Mills government. Dr. Stephen Opuni’s tenure began in 2013, thus making the claim untrue.
Full Text
The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, has claimed that cocoa production hit 1 million during the tenure of Dr Stephen Opuni as the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) under the NDC government.
“Research reveals that in 10 years, Ghana’s cocoa production will dwindle due to the activities of galamsey. When we came into government under Dr. Opuni, he made sure he implemented an aggressive cocoa rehabilitation and replanting exercise to the extent that under Dr. Opuni and the NDC we had achieved the one million tonnes mark,” he said in the Akan language.
He was speaking in an interview on the Pampaso Show on Radio Gold on September 28, 2022. The claim can be found from the 2 hours 28 minutes 34 seconds to 2 hours 29 minutes 12 seconds of the show, which was streamed live on its Facebook page. It has received over 7,000 views.
Verification
The cocoa industry in Ghana is highly regulated by the state through the industry regulator, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). According to Bloomberg, Ghana is one of the largest producers of cocoa in the world.
However, to understand the claim made by the NDC chairman, there is a need to know the terms of office of the former chief executive of COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Opuni and his predecessor.
Dr. Stephen Opuni began his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) from November 30, 2013 to January 13, 2017. This was when former President Mahama became president after the demise of late President John Evans Atta Mills.
Prior to Mr. Opuni’s appointment, Anthony Fofie was the Chief Executive of COCOBOD. His tenure began on December 16, 2008, and ended on November 30, 2013.
DUBAWA relied on data from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to ascertain if the claim made by the NDC Chairman was true. The mission of COCOBOD is to encourage and facilitate the production, processing, and marketing of good quality cocoa, coffee, and shea nut in all forms in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.
On its website, it has given a breakdown of regional production of cocoa beginning from 1947/1948 crop year till 2019/2020.
| Cocoa Production from 2008/2009 – 2019/2020 | |
| Crop Year | Production (tonnes) |
| 2008/2009 | 710,639 |
| 2009/2010 | 632,037 |
| 2010/2011 | 1,024,553 |
| 2011/2012 | 879,349 |
| 2012/2013 | 835,467 |
| 2013/2014 | 896,220 |
| 2014/2015 | 740,254 |
| 2015/2016 | 778,044 |
| 2016/2017 | 969,511 |
| 2017/2018 | 904,739 |
| 2018/2019 | 811,747 |
| 2019/2020 | 766,977 |
| 2020/2021 | 1,033,132 |
In the table above, it was only in the 2010/2011 crop season under Mr Anthony Fofie that Ghana recorded over a million tonnes of cocoa. During the tenure of Dr. Stephen Opuni, from 2013 to 2017, the highest cocoa production was recorded in the 2011/2012 crop season as 896,220 metric tonnes.
It is, therefore, evident that one million metric tonnes of cocoa production was recorded under Anthony Fofie whose tenure as the Chief Executive of COCOBOD began from 2008 to 2013.
Conclusion
Clearly, the claim by the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Samuel Ofosu Ampofo that the production of 1 million tonnes of cocoa was recorded under former Ghana Cocoa Board Chief Executive, Dr. Stephen Opuni, is completely false.
