The Upper East Regional Director of Communication of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Atanga Ayinbisa, says the impact of the cocoa price cut is far-reaching and harsher than the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme implemented under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration.
The price cuts, Peter Ayinbisa argued, are not only taking a harsh toll on earnings of farmer owners but also farmhands, who Peter Ayinbisa said are mostly from the North of the country.
These farmhands, who are among the poorest in the country, rely heavily on their pay, labouring on cocoa farms to cater to the needs of their families, and thus, the rippling effects of the price cuts will worsen their living conditions, he argued further.
Compared with the DDEP which effect he believes was limited to the middle-income earners, Peter Ayinbisa maintained that the cocoa price cut has had a more devastating toll on living standards of households than the former.
“Go and check cocoa farmers who have been given deep haircut. This one, this haircut is deeper than that of the GDEP program,” he stated on State of Our Nation.
“It’s our people, it’s our relatives, our farmers, our friends, our community members, our tribe members are the ones who are predominantly taking care of the cocoa. So, if the cocoa farmer himself has a deep haircut, that means that the one taking care of the farms would not also be paid and may get even a much, much deeper haircut.”
In the midst of Ghana’s economic crisis, the Akufo-Addo administration sought an IMF bailout and initiated the debt restructuring programme known as the Debt Exchange Programme to restructure both domestic and external debt as part of the conditions for the aid.
The programme was intended to ease the country’s debt burden, which had grown to unsustainable levels, and saw many government bondholders lose significant portions of investments, drawing criticisms against the then administration.
The Mahama administration has also faced backlash for its decision to cut prices of cocoa after the commodity price plummeted on the international market.
The government, however, defended the decision, arguing that it was necessary to sustain the cocoa sector and save the state from incurring further debts.
But Peter Ayinbisa said the government hoodwinked cocoa farmers into voting for it with the promise of better pay.
“When they were receiving 3,100 per bag, then you told them you were going to make their condition better. So, by so doing, you were going to pay them 6,500 per bag. You deceived them.”
