Former Head of Public Affairs at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Fiifi Boafo, has challenged assertions made by the current CEO, Dr. Ransford Annetey Abbey, regarding the alleged concealment of rollover contracts by the previous administration.
Fiifi Boafo dismissed Dr. Abbey’s claims of being kept in the dark, insisting that the issue had been duly discussed during a transition team meeting attended by key government figures, including Finance Minister Ato Forson, Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku, and Presidential Advisor Seth Terkper.
Boafo clarified that although the current CEO was not present at that meeting, his suggestion that the matter was hidden is not factual in a sharp response posted on social media, sighted by MyNewsGh.
“I can confidently state that this is not correct,” Boafo wrote, urging Dr. Abbey to seek accurate briefings instead of misrepresenting the situation. He suggested that had the new CEO not sidelined most of the previous leadership team by sending them home and replacing them en masse, such misunderstandings could have been avoided.
Boafo’s reaction follows remarks made by Dr. Abbey during a recent press interaction in which he bemoaned the lack of transparency over the rollover contracts. “The issue of the rollover wasn’t made public. The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Cocoa didn’t know. The Finance Committee didn’t know. Even many people at COCOBOD didn’t know,” Dr. Abbey had stated.
He went on to explain how the failure to disclose the volume of cocoa sold under earlier contracts affected the Free on Board (FOB) pricing model.
By not accounting for the 230,000 tonnes of cocoa cleared from rollover stock and the over 100,000 tonnes still outstanding, the declared FOB for the 2024/2025 season was reportedly skewed—set at $4,850 but omitted from the official COCOBOD press release.
In contrast, Dr. Abbey noted that the 2025/2026 season’s release, under the current administration, openly declared an FOB value of $7,200.
“Why was that not done last year?” Dr. Abbey queried, highlighting what he called an artificial suppression of figures that ultimately impacts cocoa farmers’ earnings.
However, Fiifi Boafo’s rebuttal raises questions about the narrative of concealment, suggesting instead that the current management’s internal reshuffles and lack of continuity may be the root cause of the confusion.
