COCOBOD CONSIDERING BUILDING CLINICS IN COCOA-GROWING COMMUNITIES

Date: 11th August 2023

Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced plans to expand its healthcare facilities in cocoa-growing communities in the country as part of efforts to enhance access to quality healthcare for cocoa farmers. 

This latest intervention comes in the wake of requests by farmers to bring healthcare delivery closer to them.   

The Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Hon Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who made the disclosure at the Cocoa Clinic @50 Symposium held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) said the institution is considering building various Cocoa Medical Centres with state-of-the-art facilities to meet diverse health needs of farmers and their dependents. He also hinted at plans to upgrade the six existing Cocoa Clinics to be able to provide at least a secondary-level healthcare service. 

“This whole idea of investing in health infrastructure aims at bringing quality healthcare to our gallant farmers across the cocoa regions”, he said. 

Hon Aidoo further observed that in recognition of the health of the nation as a whole and that of cocoa farmers in particular, COCOBOD, through its medical department (the Cocoa Clinic), had over the years been augmenting the efforts of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) in providing quality healthcare, both curative and preventive, for the people of Ghana. 

“The Cocoa Medical Centre will be an ultramodern medical facility that will provide quaternary level healthcare services for Ghanaian clients as well as clients from the sub-region and beyond, it will hold a great potential for medical tourism for the country”, he explained. 

According to him, the facility will have also internal and external linkage bridges with other Cocoa Clinics for the purposes of referrals and training and with reputable foreign-based medical facilities for the purposes of skills and technology transfer as well as staff exchanges. 

“Provisions will be made for the existing medical centres for more modern health intervention procedures such as minimally invasive surgeries, robotic surgeries, telemedicine etc. and the Centre will be operated on an Integrated Clinical Business Model based on the Kaiser Permanente (KP) model,” he added. 

According to him, aside from the provision of traditional medical healthcare, COCOBOD is also aggressively promoting the local consumption of antioxidant-rich cocoa powder for the benefit of the population, adding that “the two-prong approach will have a positive effect on local consumption of finished cocoa products, improved health and ultimately wealth of the nation.”  

The COCOBOD Chief Executive said management was also seriously considering the introduction of a cocoa health insurance scheme exclusively for cocoa farmers with a percentage of the FOB prices, stressing that these initiatives, amongst others, would soon be put before the Board of Directors for deliberations and subsequent approval.  

Touching on other interventions introduced by management to improve the welfare of cocoa farmers, Hon Aidoo observed that the nationwide roll-out of the Cocoa Pension Scheme and the enrolment of cocoa farmers under the Cocoa Management System (CMS) have recorded massive successes and that the Board hopes to register every single farmer onto the database by the end of the year. 

“The scheme will provide a decent pension for all registered cocoa farmers across the country. This feat is an addition to our numerous accomplishments and commitments towards improving the welfare of farmers and their families. We, therefore, ask for the support of all stakeholders in this endeavour”, he emphasized. 

 Outlining some significant feats chalked since the establishment of the clinics, the Medical Director in charge of the Cocoa Clinics, Dr. Jerry Owusu, said the facilities, which were initially established to meet the healthcare needs of cocoa workers, currently provide services to non-workers, and this he said, puts serious strain on the limited logistics at the facilities and called for more capital investment. 

Whilst welcoming the decision by management to upgrade the facilities, he cited congestion, lack of vehicles, software defects and delays in the procurement processes for drugs as some of the major challenges that required immediate attention beyond the 50th anniversary.