In a bold strike back at the Akufo-Addo era’s cocoa catastrophe, President John Dramani Mahama is delivering on his election vow with a whopping Ghc5.1 billion war chest to flood farmers with free fertilizers and insecticides a lifeline set to supercharge Ghana’s battered bean industry.
Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson dropped the bombshell in Parliament on November 13, 2025, unveiling the 2026 budget as a “strategic investment” to rocket production to 650,000 metric tonnes.
“Mr. Speaker, we’ve budgeted GH¢2.4 billion for CODAPEC mass spraying and GH¢2.7 billion for free fertilizer distribution,” he declared, eyes locked on reviving the golden crop that powered the nation’s economy for decades.
This isn’t just talk it’s payback for the NPP’s 2018 axe on the beloved free fertilizer scheme, which Mahama’s first term had championed.
Akufo-Addo and his sidekick Bawumia didn’t just scrap it; they hawked off stockpiles like market traders, hiking costs and watching output plummet amid rampant galamsey that poisoned farmlands. Cocoa yields tanked from highs to a dismal 530,783 metric tonnes in 2023/2024, leaving farmers in the lurch and smugglers rubbing their hands.
Fast-forward to Mahama’s triumphant 2025 return after the NDC’s electoral rout and expectations soared. Fulfilling whispers from August, the package now rolls out free cocoa fertilizers (liquid and granular), insecticides, spraying machines, fungicides, and flower inducers. Early wins are showing: output jumped to 603,840 metric tonnes by end-2024/2025, even as global prices dip.
To throttle border bandits, the farm-gate price soared from GH¢49,600 to GH¢58,000 per tonne, squeezing smugglers dry. COCOBOD’s debt? Slashed from GH¢32 billion in March to GH¢20.6 billion by September, with US$130 million and GH¢3.6 billion paid off. Cocoa roads debt? Hacked from GH¢21 billion to GH¢6.9 billion through smart cuts.
And 243,000 metric tonnes of those dodgy low-price forward sales from the old regime are settled the rest, worth US$234 million, gets squared away next year.
Forson didn’t stop there: legislative tweaks to the 1984 COCOBOD Act will yank oversight from Agriculture to Finance, tightening the fiscal screws against future fiascos.
For cocoa farmers who’ve weathered storms of neglect, this is Mahama magic but can it truly eclipse the NPP’s dark chapter? The beans are betting yes.