Several thousands of cocoa farmers in cocoa-growing regions in Ghana have commended the new management and Board of Directors of Kuapa Kooko Limited (KKL) and Kuapa Union for their efforts in protecting the farmers’ hard-earned income.

“We have never seen such seriousness in our leaders in the Kuapa fraternity, and such moves are reassuring and give us hope for a brighter future,” the farmers declared.

It would be recalled that the District Manager of KKL at Akontombra in the Western Region, Eric Fiifi Cudjoe, was arrested by the Ashanti Regional police for allegedly embezzling GH¢4,850,700 belonging to the company.

Cudjoe was remanded into police custody by the Ejisu-Juaben circuit court, presided over by Abdul Yusuf Assibey, on April 6, 2018.

The Akontombra District Manager was subsequently arraigned before court for fraudulent breach of trust following a complaint lodged by the new Managing Director of KKL, Samuel Adimado, for failing to purchase 10,212 bags of cocoa beans with the said amount of money.

The money, according to the Managing Director, was transferred through the ARB APEX Bank in Kumasi into the account of Cudjoe at the Amenfi Rural Bank Limited between September 2017 and February 2018.

Although the accused is a relative of the President of Kuapa Kooko Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Union Limited (KKFU) – the parent company of KKL – he was not spared at all.

According to reports, the president equally expressed shock at the action of his relative and called for thorough investigation and prosecution.

Cudjoe allegedly presented false reports to the company on numerous occasions in relation to the purchase of cocoa beans.

But the cocoa farmers, who are overwhelmed by the situation due to the relationship between Cudjoe and the President of KKFU, said that the bold action taken by their leaders had renewed their confidence in their leaders.

“We were overly excited at her insistence that the said amount be retrieved at all cost. We are so amazed and pleasantly surprised about the courageous manner in which our lady leader and the management have taken to deal with the issue in a dispassionate manner, devoid of fear and intimidation. This is worthy of commendation. Initially we had doubts because in Ghana when a relative of someone in high ranking position does something wrong, they treat that person with kid gloves but management has blazed a new trail to prove us wrong. Their action is so reassuring that in them we see a better future for Kuapa Kooko. We are now confident that our little contributions, accrued over the years, will not go waste,” Agya Kwasi, a cocoa farmer in the Sefwi Akontombra area, said.

“Now we, the farmers, are very confident and our trust has been boosted by the action of management. We want to thank them all for not allowing one person to embezzle that huge amount of money at our expense. This goes to prove that nobody can take us for a ride,” said Adwoa Adoma, another cocoa farmer at Ankaase in the Ashanti Region.

Source: http://dailyguideafrica.com/farmers-hail-kuapa-kooko-new-managers/

The Management and Board of Directors of Kuapa Kokoo Co-operative Cocoa Farmers & Marketing Union Limited (KKFU) and Kuapa Kokoo Limited (KKL), have declared zero tolerance for fraudulent activities in all the areas they operate.

They have, in effect, resolved to deploy technological tools as part of the programs and policies they intend rolling out to help weed out corrupt officers who have intentions of enriching themselves at the expense of the cocoa farmer.

The Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo Limited (KKL), Mr. Samuel Adimado, addressing a gathering at the grand opening of the 25th Anniversary of Kuapa Kookoo Co-operative Cocoa Farmers & Marketing Union Limited at Tepa, Thursday, said the company will this year, network all its operation centers across the country electronically with state of the art equipment.

In addition to that, they will strengthen the purchasing powers of their recorders by providing them with funds required while also build on the capacity levels of their district managers on the usage of electronic purchasing equipment they are seeking to deploy.

The event was on the theme ‘Celebrating 25 years of pioneering sustainable cocoa production’.

“This will help management to closely monitor all activities and transactions at our various units across the country in real time,” he noted to the applause of the gathering.

Besides these technological tools, Mr. Adimado said, the company would also deploy a high-powered task force to support and sustain their anti-corruption efforts, stressing that management has the backing and or support from their “most gallant farmers”.

Mr. Adimado also reiterated the company’s resolve to eradicating child labour activities in their respective farms through ‘Back to School Project’ while investing heavily in health care delivery to farmers in the hard-to-reach areas of cocoa growing communities through their Mobile Clinic system.

The President of KKFU, Madam Fatima Ali, commenting on the event said the focus of the cocoa farmers’ co-operative organization is to leverage on ICT to promote Tele-Agric and Tele-Medicine to transform Agriculture and improve the health of farmers in Ghana.

To this end, she said KKFU and KKL together with their partners, Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA), are going to train the farmers and provide them with smart mobile phones each to enable them to access the maiden Tele-Agric center in Ghana.

The Country Director of MPA, Chief Nat Ebo Nsarko, on his part, said talks are currently underway to extend the Tele-Agric centre to cover the entire country.

The Tele-Agric center, according to Mr. Nsarko, was set up at an estimated cost of US$460,000 and will serve as an information path for timely and reliable information to farmers.

The facility, he added, has an electronic agric library attached to it and can serve over 900,000 farmers across Ghana.

Mr. Nsarko further told the gathering that the Tele-Agric center would be run in different local languages and will recruit, train and deploy experienced agric extension officers, agric researchers and professionals to provide information to bridge the disconnection between academia and farmers to enhance agric practice for improved production.

The Executive Director, Cocoa Health & Extension Division, COCOBOD, Mr. Emmanuel Opoku, in a solidarity message appealed to cocoa farmers to support the government in the cocoa tree replanting exercise it has introduced to boost future production.

Activities of the year-long Silver Jubilee celebrations of Kuapa Kooko include;

Official Launch  on Thursday 19th April, 2018 @ Tepa

Institutional Debate & Public Lecture at International Conference Center – Accra on 30th April, 2018 on the theme: Empowering and Attracting the 2nd Generation (Cocoa) Farmers in the Ghana Beyond Aid.

Launch of Young Women in Cocoa Production at Kokofu/Kumasi on Friday 11th May, 2018.

Source: https://www.myjoyonline.com/business/2018/april-19th/we-will-not-shield-wrongdoers-kuapa-kokoo-warns-cheats.php

Visitors thronging the Kumasi Jubilee Park to witness the ongoing COPAL (Cocoa Day) Day exhibition at the Garden City of Ghana continue to heap praise on Kuapa Kokoo. This is as a result of a well-organized booth put up by the communication team of Kuapa Kokoo.

“I am indeed impressed with what I have seen and explained to me”. “I have heard about Kuapa Kokoo but didn’t know you do all these good things for your farmers”. “I am a cocoa farmer with two farms at Kasapin and Drobo, all Brong Ahafo towns – I will want to join Kuapa Kokoo per what I have heard you do for your farmers”.

These are but few remarks (feedbacks) that visitors to the Kuapa Kokoo booth make after they have been  led through “The Kuapa Kokoo Key Intervensions” which aims at ensuring the sustainability of cocoa production and the improvement of  the livelihood of cocoa farmers.

The COPAL day organized by Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) to showcase the importance of cocoa to the economy of Ghana began last Friday, September 29th, 2017 and will be climaxed on Monday, 2nd October, 2017 with a grand durbar to be attended by Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo and His Royal Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene.

Kuapa Kokoo’s booth has been the cynosure of all eyes during the climax. All visitors are entreated to visit the Kuapa Kokoo to learn more about what makes Kuapa unique among its peers.

Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Limited is a cocoa farmers’ owned organization certified under multiple certification schemes (i.e. FAIRTRADE, UTZ, and RAINFOREST) with over 100,000 members present in 1,356 communities; operating in six cocoa regions. The key programs that Kuapa Kokoo rolls out for its farmers includes; Healthcare and Educational Interventions, Gender Participation, Ethical Labour Interventions, Sustainable Environmental Projects, and Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support Projects.

Kuapa Kokoo

Papapaa!!!

Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Cocoa Cooperative and Marketing Union Limited (KKFU) during its 21st Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) held in August 2015 resolved to obtain multiple certification status i.e. Fairtrade Labling Organisation (FLO), Fairtrade USA, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance.

On the 30th March 2016, KKFU received its UTZ certified certificate with initial certified farmers of 3,000 and an estimated volume of 2000MT of cocoa.

As part of plans to extend the UTZ programme to cover more farmers, additional 7,000 farmers with estimated volume of 8,000MT were enrolled onto the programme. Therefore currently about 10,000 farmers with an estimated volume of 10,000MT have been certified under KKFU UTZ certification programme in six primary societies namely Bibiani, Offinso, Konongo, Sankore, Asawinso and Akontombra.

We therefore use this platform to invite businesses and like-minded partners to source UTZ certified cocoa from Kuapa Kokoo since we have the capacity and the track record to deliver.

Thank you

“Kuapa Kokoo, Papa Paa”

A total of eight medical doctors, seven nurses, and one dispensary technician from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in collaboration with Kuapa Kokoo on Wednesday, May 18th offered free health screening to over 400 cocoa farmers and their families in two Kuapa Kokoo communities. The communities visited were Bibiani and Bayerebon in the Western and Ashanti Regions respectively.

The activity was organized to mark “The International Family Doctor Day” – A day set aside by the United Nations (UN) in recognition of the special role played by the family doctor. This day was set aside to contribute to the promotion of quality and healthy life.

Access to health care delivery in rural communities remains a challenge in Ghana. Most Kuapa Kokoo communities do not have good health care facilities.In places where there are good facilities, farmers are unable to fully make us of them because of financial difficulties. In the light of these challenges, Kuapa Kokoo has made access to health care a key strategy to bring relief to its members through its health projects like Mobile clinics,Telemedicine and mutual health insurance projects.

Mobile Clinic in Kuapa Kokoo means, “taking Health care delivery to the door step of the farmer for free”. True to this strategy,  a team of doctors and nurses visit various Kuapa Kokoo communities across the country to provide health care to farmers. In situations where the condition of the farmer is severe, the team refers the individual to nearby hospitals for treatment. Health educational Programmes are also organized for farmers.

“The International Family Doctor Day” organized this year, provided an opportunity for  Kuapa Kokoo to meet the health needs of farmers and shows the efforts the organization puts in to keep farmers healthy and strong. Farmers and their families who went through the health screening were again supplied with free medication. Among the ailments treated by the doctors on the day included hypertension, malaria, worm infestation, respiratory tract infection, urinary tract infection, and gastritis.

The team of Doctors and nurses again took time to educate the farmers on the health implications of certain lifestyles such as smoking, environmental cleanliness, eating habits etc.

The medical team comprised of Dr. Fred Bedzrah (leader of delegation), Dr. Esther Brafo – Kwakye,       Dr. Emmanuel Alleser, and Dr.Simon Osei-Frimpong, Dr.Benjamin Biney, Dr.Nana Kofi Edu Affare, Dr.Nana Osei Bonsu and Dr.Agnes Amankwa Arthur.

The nurses were; Bernice Nketiah, Josephine Acheampong, Livina Nyanor, Sharon Gifty Asamaning Yeboah, Precious Adade Duodu, Grace Turkson, Amina Awudu with Frank Attipoe as the dispensary technician.

Also present at the event were Mr. Abrampah Mensah – Executive Secretary of KKFU, Mr. Seth Nortey – Bibiani Society Manager, and the executives of Kuapa Kokoo Bibiani Society.

According to Doctor Fred, this is the first time his team of doctors have engaged a community during “The International Family Doctor Day” and together with his team were very pleased to do that with Kuapa Kokoo.