Claim: NDC in 2024 manifesto promised 70% cocoa producer price to farmers
Source: Randy Abbey, CEO of COCOBOD
Verdict: False
Researched by Alfa Shaban
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Randy Abbey, claimed the recently announced cocoa producer price was in fulfilment of a campaign promise by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM on August 5, 2025, in defence of the new price and the debate about which pricing metric the government used to arrive at the GH¢3,228 per 64kg bag, the CEO insisted that the Free-On-Board (FOB) rate as used was the best and not the spot rate.
“I have read the NDC’s manifesto from the first page to the last page, I have not seen any spot price in there. What the NDC promised in the manifesto was 70% (producer price) to the farmer, and then, what His Excellency President John Mahama promised to the farmer, even on his recent tour. It was 70% to the farmer, that is what I know,” he said.
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With further probe from the host about previous comments by current government officials about cocoa price formulas, he said: “I am just saying that there is a manifesto of the NDC, the President of the country himself as a candidate spoke and he has been speaking as president, what he has been talking about is exactly what has been done.”
Did the NDC capture cocoa pricing in its 2024 manifesto? This fact-check will answer that question.
Fact-check
GhanaFact’s word search in the NDC’s 2024 manifesto, themed: ‘RESETTING GHANA – Jobs, accountability, prosperity,’ showed that the word cocoa appeared 56 times throughout the document.
For purposes of this report, we specifically scanned the section dedicated to cocoa (pages 41 – 43) under the broad Feed Industry Programme. The NDC promised 14 different interventions for the sector.
The closest to pricing of cocoa was contained in point 14 under “Promote Cocoa Farmer Welfare and Support,” where the NDC promised to be “ensuring regular cocoa price increments depending in line with world market trends.”
There is no mention of how much or what percentage the new government was promising to give farmers.
On the issue of cocoa producer prices, the then opposition (now ruling party), through the current Finance and Agriculture Ministers, stated at different times that farmers deserved about double the GH¢3,100 per 64kg bag that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government was paying.
Candidate John Mahama also assured farmers during an election engagement that his government would give farmers 70% of the producer price, a promise he reiterated as president months back.
Verdict
The manifesto did not capture either the price or the percentage of cocoa producer price the NDC intended to pay cocoa farmers; therefore, the claim by the COCOBOD CEO is False.
NB: GhanaFact’s WhatsApp message to the COCOBOD CEO has not been responded to. We will update this report once we get it.
