The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said that the government is working around the clock to introduce a pension scheme for all cocoa farmers in the country.
According to him, the scheme will also benefit all persons in the cocoa value chain.
Speaking at the 2017 celebrations of Kundum Festival for the people of Nsein in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, Dr. Bawumia recounted how cocoa farmers whose contribution has put the country at the world stage turns to be the least beneficiaries of their produce.
He noted that “we are working on the pension scheme for cocoa farmers. It will be the first ever cocoa pension scheme for cocoa farmers. There is work going on seriously to try to launch it this year.”
“The scheme will ensure that all workers in the cocoa value chain will benefit from a pension scheme so that upon retirement, these hardworking people, who have kept Ghana in the global limelight will have something to sustain them. This project is directly in line with the government’s vision for enhancing financial inclusion,” he added.
Cocoa farmers over the years have had to save for themselves after they become weak and cannot work on their farms. Others who could not save have had to be subjected to financial humiliations.
Others died poor despite producing one of the world’s most essential commodities for decades.
The lack of such initiatives among other factors are the driving factors motivating some cocoa farmers particularly in the Western Region to sell off their cocoa farms to illegal miners.
The scheme if well implemented, will serve also as motivation for the youth to take up cocoa farming to augment the falling production levels of the commodity in the country.
0 Comments