Accra, Dec.15, GNA - Dr Angela Ofori-Attah, Deputy Minister for Manpower Development and Employment (MMDE) on Monday urged stakeholders to join hands with the Government to ensure that child labourers were not engaged on cocoa farms.
She said engaging child labour could have serious implications for the country's trade with the outside world.
Dr Ofori-Attah said this when she inaugurated the Project Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) of the West African Cocoa and Commercial Agricultural Project (WACAP) in Accra.
The PTAC has been tasked with the responsibility of advising the WACAP on issues relating to cocoa and commercial agriculture and to facilitate and guide the implementation of the project.
It also has to foster co-ordination and collaboration with other agencies and programmes engaged in the cocoa industry.
Dr Ofori-Attah called for the setting up of a monitoring system on the farms to prevent the use of all types of child labour.
"This of course does not include children, who are in school and living with their families but participate in family economic activities under adult supervision."
"This traditional practice is not included in the definition of child labour"
She said it was very important to demonstrate to consumers of cocoa products that Ghanaians farmers did not depend on child labour. Mr Edwin Barnes, Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior and a member of the PTAC, said they would do everything to justify the confidence reposed in them.
