Catherine Afeku, Tourism Minister
The Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts, in collaboration with the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), on Tuesday celebrated this year’s National Chocolate Day with students of the Christ Faith Foster Home School at Frafraha in Accra.
The day which is marked yearly was instituted to coincide with and reshape the celebration of Valentine’s Day to promote the consumption of chocolate and other cocoa-based products, as cocoa is the mainstay of Ghana’s economy.
This year’s celebration was on the theme: ‘Love Chocolate, Love Adventure’.
Nana Oduro Kwarteng, Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts, said the day was to increase the consumption of chocolate “as it is not just for the taste of it but has a lot of compounds in terms of medicinal purposes.”
He said cocoa is an important product and the ministry wants to ensure that it is used to promote domestic tourism.
“In order to reap the necessary benefit of cocoa, it is advisable for all to add the consumption of the cocoa products to our daily meal,” he said.
Dr Frank Asante, Managing Director of CPC, said the National Chocolate Day was instituted to promote Ghanaian chocolate as the preferred gift of choice for loved ones.
He said the company chose to spend the day with the school in order for the students to know the essence of the day, as well as know the importance of the consumption of chocolate on regular basis.
He said the black chocolate is always better and chocolate eaten before meal is better, adding, “It should not be chewed but licked.”
The CPC later donated cocoa products, including bags of drinking chocolate, buckets of tiger nut, chocolate spread and chocolate worth GH¢2,000.
It also presented a vending machine to the school.
Madam Ellen Ohene-Bekoe, Director Christ Faith Foster Home School, expressed appreciation to the ministry, as well as CPC, for the kind gesture and the love shown to the children on this special day.
She called on other corporate organisations to support the school and spend time with the children.