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The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, clashed with the Head of Public Affairs of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Fiifi Boafo, on live TV over issues pertaining to the prices of cocoa in Ghana.

Fiifi Boafo, during a panel discussion on JoyNews on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, said that he was not going to give details of Ghana’s cocoa stock because he did not have the permission of traders to do so.

He said that the details of Ghana’s cocoa stock cannot be made public because it might affect Ghana negatively when it is negotiating with its trading partners.

“Traders would not give me permission to give every detail (of stock)… the reason why I am not going to give the details is if you, for example, come and sit on radio and tell the whole public that COCOBOD stock is 800, we have sold 750 and we are left with 50.

“The person who is doing the trading is obviously giving too much information such that it affects your ability to be able to use the management of stocks as part of the trading tool,” he explained.

However, Sammy Gyamfi was shocked by the suggestion of Fiifi Boafo that Ghana’s cocoa stock could not be made public.

He indicated that details of Ghana’s cocoa production levels are always made public once the government goes for cocoa-syndicated loans.

“What! Cocoa pricing which is a matter of public record. If you go for a syndicated loan right now you won't go with all these figures.

“What is this? He can't tell us the percentage of cocoa they have sold. This is scandalous,” he said.

He added that the COCOBOD public relations officer’s claim cannot be true because the trading of cocoa is done publicly and Ghana's production levels are always known to the public but this government is hiding the records for ulterior motives.