CEO of COCOBOD (M) with the governing council
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), will soon hand over about 44, 769 farms to over 29, 441 beneficiary farmers across the country.
Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who made known this when he inaugurated the governing council of the Bunso Cocoa College in Accra said these beneficiaries who were within 51 cocoa districts will be supported by the students to establish their farms with products from the college.
He said the Bunso Cocoa College which only offered training programmes for staff of the COCOBOD especially extension and other technical services has been revamped into a Diploma awarding institution to build a sustainable Cocoa sector.
“To us at Board, we envisaged that within the implementation of the Cocoa Rehabilitation programme with a focus of treating some 500,000 hectares of deceased farms, enormous business opportunities would be created for our students who graduate with cocoa agronomy, traceability, sustainability among others,” he said.
He said the inauguration of the governing council will help improve the governance structure of the institute to produce the right calibre of students to supports the sustainability of the cocoa sector in diverse ways.
He also said the governing board is expected to roll out more tailor-made training programmes to equip the students with modern skills that will not only be useful to themselves alone but society as a whole while assuring them of continuous support from government.
The 10-member governing council include Dr. Ebenezer Owusu, Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive, Dr. Mercy Asamoah, Programme coordinators, Francis Cudjoe and Dr. Michael Obour Opoku
Others are Amstrong Kwame Morny, Emmanuella Akosua Asamoah, Senior lecturer (Rtd), and chairman, Akyem Abuakwa Presbytery, Rev. Prof. Asare Danso.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah