Akim Swedru MP slams COCOBOD Act over restrictions on cocoa farmers’ land use

Akim Swedru's Member of Parliament, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, has voiced strong objections to certain provisions of the recently enacted Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Act, contending that they infringe upon the rights of cocoa growers by limiting their authority to determine the use of their land. On Sunday, August 2, Osei Nyarko made his stance known through a Facebook post, asserting that the new legislation prohibits cocoa farmers from altering their farms for any purpose other than cocoa production or rehabilitation, irrespective of whether the land is privately held, part of a family estate, or belongs to a traditional stool.

The lawmaker cautioned that any individual who removes a cocoa farm for a different use could face legal repercussions under the new law. Osei Nyarko contended that the provision constitutes an unjust limitation on property rights, emphasizing that cocoa farmers and landowners ought to maintain the prerogative to dictate how their land is utilized. "A cocoa farmer or an owner of a cocoa farmland must have the right to decide on what to use the land for at any given time," he emphasized.

This criticism emerged in the aftermath of Parliament's passage of the Ghana Cocoa Board Bill, 2026, a bill aimed at reforming cocoa sector governance by creating a new legal framework for overseeing, regulating, and monitoring all activities within the cocoa value chain, while also establishing a sustainable funding model for the industry.

While the government has championed the bill as a crucial reform to bolster Ghana's cocoa sector and ensure its long-term viability, Osei Nyarko maintains that the land-use restrictions embedded in the Act are excessively stringent and infringe upon the rights of cocoa farmers and other landowners.