Kofi Ahovi

  Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have reaffirmed their commitment to transforming the cocoa sector and improving the livelihoods of farmers, with Presidents John Dramani Mahama and Alassane Ouattara pledging deeper cooperation to address longstanding challenges facing the industry. The commitment was contained in a Joint Declaration issued after the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana High-Level Summit on the Future of the Cocoa Economy held in Abidjan on June 16, 2026. The two leaders underscored the strategic importance of the cocoa sector, noting that Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire together account for about 60 percent of global cocoa production, placing on them a shared responsibility to shape the future of the industry. The summit reviewed progress made under the 2018 Abidjan Declaration, highlighting key achievements including the establishment of the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI), the implementation of the Living Income Differential (LID), harmonised producer price announcements, cocoa tra...

  The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Randy Abbey, has called for deeper trust, transparency, and commitment between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire as the two countries seek to strengthen cooperation and secure greater value for cocoa from the two countries on the international market. Addressing stakeholders at a meeting of the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) in Abidjan, Dr. Abbey stressed that sustained collaboration between the world’s two largest cocoa-producing countries remains critical to improving farmer incomes, enhancing market influence, and promoting the long-term sustainability of the cocoa sector. According to him, while both countries have made significant strides in advancing their shared interests through the Initiative, the success of future efforts will depend largely on the ability of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to deepen mutual confidence and maintain a common strategic direction on key industry issues, particularly cocoa pricing. Ghan...

Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are set to commence the construction of a 330-kilovolt (kV) double-circuit transmission line as part of the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) initiative. The 243-kilometre cross-border project is designed to boost electricity exchange between the two countries and enhance grid stability across the wider West African region. Feasibility studies have confirmed the project’s technical and financial viability within Ghana. The total estimated cost of the project is €154.4 million, covering environmental and social impact mitigation, construction supervision, and project management. Speaking at a ministerial committee meeting on Wednesday June 25, 2025, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Engineer Mark Baah, stressed the project’s role in deepening regional energy integration. The project involves the construction of a 330kV double-circuit transmission line, stretching approximately 243 kilometres—about 122 kilometres on each side of the b...

  An innovation-driven partnership launched by Fairtrade International, Fairtrade Africa, and digital solutions provider Farmforce will extend the deployment of a smart data management system to more than two dozen cocoa cooperatives in Cote d’Ivoire in a pioneering effort to empower cooperative data ownership, provide cocoa traceability, and strengthen their role as trading partners, the organizations today confirmed. Initially launched as a pilot in April 2021 , the partnership between Fairtrade and Farmforce enables cooperatives to implement a digitalised Internal Management System, or IMS, to collect data on members’ farms, production, and sales, and enable them to better manage prominent risks such as deforestation. The partnership expansion, inaugurated just last month, will now see an additional 25 cooperatives engaged with Farmforce’s proprietary technology with nearly 400 people trained on how to use the software for optimizing efficiency for the cooperatives and their mem...