Fairtrade Africa’s Cocoa Hubs Project strengthens rural service centres in cocoa-growing communities

Fairtrade Africa's Cocoa Hubs Project in Ghana is enhancing rural service centers in cocoa-growing communities by equipping Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) facilitators with digital data collection skills. This initiative aims to promote climate-conscious, paperless operations and real-time data collection to better serve rural farming communities.

The project, which supports 21 Rural Service Centres across six key cocoa-producing regions, is a collaboration between Fairtrade Africa and Tropenbos Ghana, funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These Rural Service Centres act as community-based agricultural enterprises, connecting smallholder farmers with essential resources such as agricultural inputs, farm management support, mechanisation, financial services, training, and direct market access.

The main objective is to strengthen the institutional, operational, and financial capacities of these centres, transforming them into self-sustaining, commercially viable rural enterprises. Additionally, Village Savings and Loans Associations have been established, allowing farmers to pool their resources together and provide loans to one another under self-governed constitutions.

Fairtrade Africa has trained professional facilitators to ensure the long-term success of these centres.