Thanks to God for COCOBOD@60

Daasebre Akuamoah Boateng II, Board Chairman of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Major (RTD) Courage Quashigah, Minister of Health, staff of COCOBOD and the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana on Sunday joined worshippers at the Holy Sprit Cathedral Catholic Church in Accra to climax their 60th anniversary celebration.

The celebration of the 60th Anniversary of COCOBOD, which was launched in May this year was marked with several activities to create awareness about the successes and problems faced in the cocoa industry and the way forward for management of the cocoa industry.

Mr. Isaac Osei said the Board hoped to produce a million tons of cocoa by the year 2010 from the current production of 614 tons.

Thanking the Catholic Church for giving them a venue for their thanksgiving service, Mr. Osei praised all those who have contributed in any small way to the growth of the cocoa industry.

He called on people in senior management positions to endeavour to train young ones and make them capable replacement when they were no more and said the youth had so much potentials that needed to be tapped.

Daasebre Boateng II, who is also the Chief of Kwahu Traditional Area presented GH¢1000 (¢10 million) as a token of appreciation to the church and GH¢ 500 (¢5 million) to the Akropong School for the Blind who were also there to worship with the church.

The Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, Archbishop of Accra, in a sermon underscored the importance of a seed to procreation and said Christians should see the word of God like a cocoa seed that had been entrusted to our care.

"We all know what a cocoa seed can do when we take good care of it," he said and stressed that Christians should nurture the word of God in them like a cocoa seed to ensure it grows well and becomes productive.

Rev. Palmer-Buckle urged Ghanaians to work hard and earn a daily living and said it was only Ghanaians and Africans that could make Africa a developed place.