The Director of Public Affairs of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr. Stephen Fiifi Boafo has revealed that eight persons have been arrested by the police following Joy News’ Documentary ‘Children in Cocoa Labour’ aired on January 10, 2022.
Mr Boafo said, seven out of the eight people whose faces were shown in the documentary were arrested in the Ashanti Region while another person was also arrested in the Western North Region.
He said, as a regulator of Ghana’s cocoa industry, COCOBOD is interested in the sustainability and adopted a policy of zero tolerance of child labour as an important component of it growth.
“As such, this documentary resulting from the undercover investigation by Joy News sought to expose incidence of child labour in the cocoa industry in Ghana.
According to him, COCOBOD takes any report which portrays a child of school-going age as having engaged in activities on a cocoa farm that could be construed as child labour.
“We and the government have taken a strong stance against child labour of any kind and condemn any act which undermines the efforts aimed at ensuring sustainability in the cocoa industry,” the Director of Public Affairs stated.
He added that any case of child labour has a negative impact on the reputation of the country on the international stage and so the government of Ghana through COCOBOD frowns on such activities.
Mr. Boafo said these incidents are not common practices in Ghana’s cocoa industry adding that ordinarily, one will not see farmers openly engaged in such practices when one visits the cocoa communities and that is a testament to the fact that sensitisation efforts and interventions by the service are yielding good results.
This, he said COCOBOD will drastically deal with any criminal elements set on defying the government policy and undermining their efforts of eradicating child labour in cocoa production.
“We have already reported the situation, as unearthed in the documentary to the police and some arrests have already been effected in the Ashanti and Western North Regions. All suspects and persons of interest are currently going through the legal process.” He added
He hinted that the service will similarly alert the police on any other case related to child labour which come to the attention for the persons involved to be apprehended and prosecuted.
Mr. Boafo said government have over the years, introduced various anti-child labour programmes and interventions to sanitise the cocoa industry. These he said but not limited to the implementation of the child labour free zones concept, the training of labour inspectors/officers on child labour issues, harmonizing the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System (GCLMS) with the Child Labour Monitoring System aimed at training of district or community child protection committees, the free senior high school programme to keep more children in school, the capitation grant and the school feeding programme.
He said other interventions put in place by COCOBOD include the mainstreaming of anti-child labour education into our extension delivery services, the anti-child labour sensitisation programme in cocoa-growing areas, the pursuit of remunerative income for farmers to be able to afford adequate adult labour and farm sustainably; and the Cocoa Management System (CMS), which will improve on child labour monitoring and remediation system put in place in the cocoa sector.
In addition to that, COCOBOD has also introduced and distributed to all cocoa-growing communities, the dual-purpose motorised pruners and slashers as a means to mechanise the otherwise labour-intensive aspects of cocoa farming, thereby, reducing the need to hire labour (farm hands) to work on cocoa farms.
“We want to send a strong caution to any persons who may be involved in these acts to desist from undermining the industry which forms the backbone of this country and wants to assure all stakeholders of the commitment to ensure that child.” he said.
