Cocoa farmers at a forum at Asempanaye in the Juabeso District have complained about induced delays in cashing Akuafo cheques. A prominent cocoa farmer, Johnson Opoku says farmers in the area experience a lot of frustration before they obtain their money, especially at the Setwi Asempanaye branch of the SG-SSB. He said there are occasions when cocoa farmers have to queue fore over one week at the banks premises to cash their cheques.
In such a situation they have no other options than to sleep at bank’s premises as they have no relatives in the area. Mr Opoku said the situation is encouraging corruption amongst bank officials, adding that the ling queues at the banks on the day of payments attract armed robbers who sometimes attack farmers on their way home. Mr Opoku therefore suggested that government make it mandatory for banks to deposit money due to farmers directly into their accounts, after presenting their Akuafo Cheques instead of putting huge sums of cash into their hands.
In a related development cocoa farmers at Asumura in the Asunafo-North Municipality have appealed to the Ghana Cocoa Board to ensure that monies released to their licensed cocoa buying companies in respect of bonuses reach them. A cocoa farmer, Opanuin Kwaku Mensah told Radio Ghana at Goaso that most of the farmers had received their bonuses of cocoa being sold at Asumura for the 2005/2006 and the 2007 main crop season. He said though the system for the disbursement of bonus was straight forward, the purchasing clerks of the various societies made it cumbersome for the farmers especially the non literate.
Opanyi Mensah said the farmers are often cheated, or given a fraction of their bonus. He reiterated that since the bonuses only meant for farmers, the government has to ensure that such huge sums of money are not shared among unscrupulous officials who have not worked for it.
