The New Patriotic Party’s Agriculture Policy Committee has criticized the new Cocoa Bill passed by Parliament in 2026, warning that hasty legislation could harm a sector that supports nearly 3 million Ghanaians.

Speaking at a press briefing, Offinso South MP Dr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, co-chair of the NPP Agric Policy Committee and Ranking Member on Cocoa Affairs and Agriculture, said the bill touches more households than any other legislation passed by the current Parliament.

Approximately 800,000 farming households cultivate cocoa across 10 of Ghana’s 16 regions. Including dependents, the sector sustains an estimated 3 million people — close to 1 in 10 Ghanaians. Cocoa generates about $2 billion in foreign exchange in a normal season, making it the country’s second-largest export earner after gold.

“Cocoa revenue has historically financed cocoa roads, scholarships, clinics, and mass spraying across the cocoa belt,” Dr. Opoku said.

He noted that the sector is already facing significant challenges. National output fell from a record 1.047 million metric tons in the 2020–2021 season to roughly 530,000 tons in 2023–2024, due to El Niño and other factors, before a partial recovery to around 600,000 tons. COCOBOD now projects a further drop of approximately 16% in output for the 2026–2027 season, citing adverse weather, the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease, and encroachment by illegal mining.

“This is the context,” Dr. Opoku added. “A sector under such pressure cannot afford legislation drafted in haste. The cost of getting this bill wrong will not be borne in Accra. It will be borne in Sefwi, Offinso, Assin Fosu, Goaso, Asankragua, Nkawkaw, Enchi, Nyinahin, Manso Nkwanta, Abrepo, and indeed across all 10 cocoa-growing regions.”

The bill was laid in Parliament on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, by the Deputy Minister for Finance and passed within the same week under a certificate of urgency, pursuant to Article 106(13) of the 1992 Constitution.

Dr. Opoku stressed that the bill repeals PNDC Law 81 in its entirety, legislates the governance of the entire industry, creates a new tribunal, and establishes new criminal offenses — yet was passed in a matter of days.

“We do not say a certificate of urgency is unconstitutional. It is constitutional,” he said. “What we are saying is that its use must be proportionate to the case for urgency. The argument advanced here — that the 2026–2027 pricing window opens in September — does not justify foreclosing consultation on a law of this permanence.”

Report by Bernard K Dadzie Greater Accra Region