When the Cocoa Roads Fund Is Misapplied…

Last month,  President John Dramani Mahama cut the sod at Adeiso in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern Region, to officially mark the start of the rehabilitation of roads in cocoa-producing communities in the country.

It forms part of a five-year ambitious project to solve what the Ghana Cocoa Board describes as challenges associated with carting cocoa beans from farm gates to buying centres, and to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers.

“The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, has rolled out the Ghana Cocoa Roads Rehabilitation Programme to facilitate the transportation of cocoa beans to buying centres.

The Cocoa Roads Project also aims at improving road network in cocoa communities, with the view to ensuring access to remote cocoa areas, as well as creating a congenial environment to promote the livelihood of farmers.”

Normally, cocoa roads are undertaken by COCOBOD without the root-top advertisements that went with the beginning of the project last year. Nevertheless, The Chronicle is not worried about the high-profile feature of the assignment, provided it achieves the result envisaged.

With elections in the corner, it was only natural that the incumbent administration is seen to be promoting the idea of good roads in our cocoa growing areas.

In the Eastern Region, some of the roads listed for rehabilitation under the Cocoa Roads project are the Adeiso-Asamankese, Suhum-Asamankese, Osenase-Akwatia, Apedwa-Kyebi and Suhum-Krobiaso among others.

In the Western Region, the Benchira-Osiekojokrom, Prestea-Samreboi, Anyinase-Sui-Bodi, Akontombra-Bodi-Juaboso, Akontombra-Wiawso, Enchi-Dadieso, Daboase-Atieku, Sefwi Wiawso Town and Edwenase-Atobiase roads are all captured to be reconstructed.

These projects, among many others in other cocoa growing areas with a total of 628.70 kilometres, and projected to cost the Ghanaian tax payer US$150 million, were going to make roads linking cocoa growing areas a priority, according to the official bulletin on the project.

Unfortunately for Ghanaians, the exercise is taking on more of a political nature than the need to construct roads to ease the evacuation of cocoa. Of late, roads in some parts of the national capital, Accra, are being asphalted, we learn, from the fund meant for cocoa roads.

In the coastal belt of the Central Region, where no cocoa tree is in sight anywhere, extensive rehabilitation of feeder roads are under way, ostensibly under the Cocoa Roads Project. With election at fever pitch, the government has apparently found the Cocoa Roads Project a useful ally in its campaign to remain in power. That is where The Chronicle smells a rat.

While we welcome the idea to rehabilitate road infrastructure in all parts of the country, we do not believe that diverting funds meant for the Cocoa Roads Project to execute the campaign of the incumbent administration is the best means of developing this country.

What this means is that eventually, the State of Ghana would not be able to rehabilitate all roads captured in the Cocoa Roads Project. In our view, the State of Ghana may not be able to retire the loans contracted for cocoa purchases, from which US$150 million has been set aside to rehabilitate cocoa roads in this country.

In the run-up to the 2012 Presidential and Legislative Elections, this nation overspent its budget by a whopping GH¢8.7 billion. That reckless expenditure is still harming the state economy.

The Chronicle is not happy with the way the Cocoa Roads Fund is being misapplied. It is our considered view that it is dangerous for the economic well-being of this country. We do not believe that the Cocoa Roads Fund could be stretched beyond its capability to reach out to cocoa growing areas, and ultimately help in maximising this nation's earnings from the leading cash crop export from Ghana.

The government of President John Dramani Mahama is on notice to stop the reckless misapplication of the Cocoa Roads Fund. We do not believe that we should all look on sheepishly, while this administration engages in another bout of reckless expenditure to buy the vote, in the process of which there is the likelihood of harming the very base of this nation's economy.