Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo the Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is billed to receive a national recognition in Ivory Coast on 1st October 2020.
President Alassane Dramane Ouattara will be bestowing the honour on the COCOBOD boss for his leadership in securing the historic cocoa floor price and Living Income Differential levy for cocoa farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The people of Ivory Coast deem the recent feat chalked jointly by their country and Ghana under the captaincy of Mr Boahen Aidoo as fulfilling the words of their founding leader, the late President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
According to legend, President Boigny in the 1960s had toured Europe in search of a good price for the country’s cocoa but was denied.
Prophecy Comes To Pass
He is, however, reported to have remarked to the buyers that “an African president has come here today to take a price and he’s not been given, one day an African son will bring you a price and you will take it.”
The success in securing the floor price and the LID to President Ouattara and his people is a prophecy that has come to pass.
“And they are so proud of us as Ghanaians”, Mr Aidoo commented in a recent radio interview in Accra, adding “but most importantly it was an initiative by President Akufo-Addo and President Ouattara”.
Even though the actual work was a collaboration Mr Boahen and his Ivorian counterpart, Mr Yves Brahima Kone, Aidoo is seen as the captain of the team.The duo in November 2019 was jointly awarded the Cocoa Farmer Income Sustainability Honorary Award at the maiden Ghana Cocoa Awards. Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo also emerged the winner of the coveted Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Personality of the Year Award for his exceptional leadership in Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Ghana and Ivory Coast are neighbouring West African countries and also the world’s top two largest producers of cocoa beans.
In 2017 the leaders of the two countries agreed to coordinate their activities in the cocoa sector to tackle issues confronting them, most pressing was the challenge of addressing poor incomes for cocoa farmers.
The Living Income Differential agreed with cocoa buyers and top manufacturers will see the payment of an extra $400 on every tonne of cocoa sold by farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The amount is hoped to raise the income of the farmer to a decent level, although it does not completely solve the problem of endemic poverty among Africa’s cocoa producers.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo on 24th September 2020 announced a new cocoa producer price which incorporates the full amount of the LID, translating to $25 per bag.
Ivory Coast’s leader is expected to follow suit when he announces the country’s cocoa producer price to a hike of 21 per cent.
