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The Chairman of the Committee on Food and Agriculture of Parliament and MP for Abirem, Hon John Frimpong Osei, has said government is taking concrete measures to promote cocoa processing in the country in order to help create jobs for the youth and improve the country's economy.

Speaking to Peace FM News, John Frimpong Osei said government through the COCOBOD borrowed six hundred million US dollars (US$ 600,000,000 ) from the African Development Bank in 2021 and allocated US$ 200 million out of the US$ 600 million for the cocoa processing industry to add value to the product .
Furthermore, John Frimpong Osei said government has reduced the cost of cocoa beans by 20 percent for the light crop season to help increase the profit of cocoa processors in the country and to help grow their business.

He added that globally, the chocolate industry generates a total of US$ 150 billion but only US$ 6 billion comes to West Africa even though Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire produce more than 60% of the world's cocoa which is not the best for the sub region.

John Osei Frimpong attributed the relatively low revenue that West Africa generates from cocoa to the fact that most of the cocoa produced in the sub region are exported unprocessed .