Don’t cancel the pension scheme for cocoa farmers

Ghana’s cocoa farmers built this nation. They financed our schools, our roads, our hospitals and our foreign reserves. Yet for decades, when age caught up with them, the system offered them nothing but goodwill and gratitude. That changed in 2020.

The Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme (CFPS) remains the single most transformative welfare intervention ever introduced in Ghana’s cocoa sector, and it must not become a casualty of political transition.

As a former Investment Manager at COCOBOD and a former Minister for Public Enterprises, I state without hesitation that abandoning this scheme would be a grave policy reversal which would add insult to the injuries which cocoa farmers have already suffered under this government through its price reduction policy, popularly described as the cocoa farmers' head cut.

Something Deeper Beyond The Mechanics Of Pensions For Cocoa Farmers

For decades, Ghana’s cocoa policy excessively focused on the bean production volumes, export earnings, foreign exchange receipts. The Akufo-Addo and Bawumia administration deliberately shifted that focus. The industry could no longer be about beans alone; it had to be about the people who produce them.

_The Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme symbolised that shift from commodity obsession to human-centred policy. From cocoa as export statistics to cocoa farmers as citizens deserving structured dignity. This is the real legacy at stake.

1. From Informal Labour to Formal Protection

By law, cocoa farmers cannot sell to just anyone. They are bound into a regulated marketing structure under COCOBOD. With the introduction of the Cocoa Management System (CMS), farmers are now digitally registered, mapped, and fully integrated into a traceable national production system. In effect, they are part of a formal industry structure.

If the State formalises its obligations, it must formalise its protections. You cannot regulate farmers like formal participants and deny them formal retirement security.

2. The Fairness Question Which Ghana Must Answer

The FOB price of cocoa is shared 70% to farmers and 30% to service providers, including COCOBOD. The workers paid from that 30% largely enjoy contributory pensions, whilst the farmers who produce the wealth historically did not and currently do not. The Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme corrects this injustice. This is not politics. It is equity.

3. A 36-Year Legal Obligation Finally Honoured and Farmers Have Signed On

Section 26 of the Ghana Cocoa Board Law, 1984 (PNDC L.81) required the establishment of a contributory pension scheme for cocoa farmers. For 36 years, this was ignored. The NPP government under the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia activated this in December 2020.

Through the Cocoa Management System, over 100,000 cocoa farmers have already been enrolled under the scheme. These farmers have demonstrated readiness and commitment to contribute 5% of their income, deductible at source, to secure their own retirement pensions. This is not a handout. It is a contributory, self-empowering model of social protection.

The scheme is registered with the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) as a group personal pension scheme. It is lawful, regulated, and structurally sound. This was not campaign rhetoric. It was institutional reform backed by farmer participation.

4. A Scheme That Works

Under the CFPS:

• Farmers contribute through deductions from cocoa sales.

• COCOBOD provides matching or supplementary contributions.

• Funds are paid into individual retirement accounts.

• Farmers receive periodic pension income upon retirement.

In short, the scheme is intended to provide dignity to cocoa farmers in old age, just like any formal worker in Ghana. Its initiation remains historic.

5. The Fiscal Argument Does Not Hold

When the scheme was introduced:

• Cocoa prices were around USD 2,000 per tonne.

• COCOBOD carried significant debt.

Yet the NPP government proceeded because farmer welfare mattered. Today, global cocoa prices are even significantly higher than USD 2,000. So why stall the scheme now?

It was determined to be sustainable under even tighter fiscal conditions. So it is certainly sustainable today. So let us not reduce farmer pensions to partisan arithmetic.

6. Infrastructure Already Built Now Idling

The scheme was piloted successfully in three (3) Cocoa Districts: Assin Bereku, Assin Fosu and New Edubiase.

Six (6) operational offices were established in Sunyani, Dunkwa, Agona Swedru, Koforidua, Sefwi Wiawso and Tarkwa.

A Board of Trustees was constituted. A Scheme Administrator was appointed. Systems were made functional.

The scheme was ready for nationwide rollout. Today, these offices reportedly sit idle. Staff are in place, but implementation momentum has completely stalled. Farmers who enrolled have begun asking for refunds.

This is not just policy drift. This marks both erosion of trust and disregard for farmers.

7. Pension Policy Must Not Be Partisan

Social protection cannot change with electoral cycles. The Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme is:

• Morally justified

• Anchored in law

• Backed by regulation

• Institutionally piloted

• Financially structured

• Supported by over 100,000 enrolled farmers willing to contribute 5% of their own income

The NDC government must demonstrate policy maturity by continuing and strengthening the cocoa farmers' pension scheme to avoid delivering a double jeopardy to cocoa farmers. To cancel or neglect it would send the wrong message to farmers who already face production risks, climate challenges and income uncertainty.

8. A National Appeal

Let us be clear. The Akufo-Addo and Bawumia administrations did not merely increase producer prices. It redefined the philosophy of cocoa governance by shifting focus from the beans to the farmers.

The Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme is the clearest proof of that shift. If the current government believes in social justice, it should improve this scheme, not undermine it. This is because cocoa farmers deserve:

• A fair price at harvest, and

• Some security at retirement.

This is bigger than party lines. The NDC must continue the Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme. History will judge whether it strengthened a reform that empowered cocoa farmers or weakened it.