On Sunday, September 28, Rev. Richard C. Whitcomb, preacher at the Agape House New Testament Church, delivered a striking message that cut across faith and economics.
His sermon titled ‘A Better You’ touched on Ghana’s cocoa sector, a backbone of the national economy, and challenged the nation to rethink its role in the global cocoa value chain.
Rev. Whitcomb highlighted that Ghana, together with Côte d’Ivoire, produces roughly 60% of the world’s cocoa. Yet, despite this dominance in production, Ghana has little say in determining the global price of the commodity.
Instead, the nation remains a price taker, dependent on international markets for the value of its cocoa beans.
According to him, this reality reflects a larger issue: Ghana has become preoccupied with the activities of cocoa farming, planting, harvesting, and exporting beans, rather than the purpose of the industry, which should be to generate wealth and sustainable growth for the nation.
Rev. Whitcomb drew a stark comparison between the value of raw cocoa and its processed products.
“The raw material of cocoa is a five-billion-dollar industry, but the final products (chocolate, confectioneries, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals) make up a five-hundred-billion-dollar industry,” he emphasized.
His message was clear: a purposeful nation would not remain satisfied with merely supplying raw materials at minimal profit margins. Instead, it would strategically position itself to capture a greater share of the global value chain by processing cocoa into high-value products, branding them, and competing in the global marketplace.
The preacher’s sermon echoes long-standing debates about Africa’s resource curse and the continent’s continued export of raw materials while importing finished goods at exorbitant costs. For Ghana, cocoa is not just a crop; it is a national heritage, a livelihood for millions, and a potential engine for industrial transformation.
Rev. Whitcomb’s call challenges policymakers, entrepreneurs, and citizens alike to rethink the purpose of the cocoa industry. Should Ghana continue to focus on producing beans for the world, or should it build factories, invest in branding, and dominate in the $500 billion global chocolate and cocoa products industry?
If taken seriously, his message could inspire a new national direction, one where Ghana no longer accepts the role of a price taker but becomes a value creator, turning beans into billions.
By: Dr. Bismark Odum-Sackey
