Cocoa is one of the commodities which brings foreign income to Ghana. At the world market, the country is reputed to have the best cocoa for the manufacture of Milo, chocolate, desserts, and other consumer goods.
Cocoa thrives well in forest zones and in Ghana; the western region of the country is well noted for its green nature and rich soil for the growth of cocoa. Coincidentally, the western region shares a border with the Ivory Coast—one of the largest cocoa producing country in West Africa, alongside Ghana.
However, cocoa prices in the Ivory Coast are much high than in Ghana, and security officials at the borders connive with smugglers to smuggle many bags of cocoa across the border to be sold in the Ivory Coast, depriving Ghana of an economic and monetary benefit.
To be able to tell the world a detailed story about how these smugglers operate and gain help from security officials, Anas Aremeyaw Anas-Ghana’s best investigative journalist, went undercover to unravel the evil that deprives the country of millions of Ghanaian Cedis.
Anas codenamed his assignment “Operation Hunter”, and it revealed that individuals (security officials) who are paid by the country to protect its interest at the border, have betrayed the country by aiding and abetting criminals to smuggle many bags of cocoa to the Ivory Coast.
In places such as Debiso, Essem, Abrawakrom Enchi, Elubo, Sefwi, Wiawso and Nrankwanta, Anas captured security officials and smugglers, in video footage, crossing the border with bags of cocoa through suitable paths to the Ivory Coast. Security officials are seen collecting bribe money from the smugglers, before also showing them an alternative route to use to evade arrest.
Anas’s hidden cameras captured resources, that were provided by the Ghanaian government as part of its anti-cocoa smuggling measures, being used to assist the smugglers carry out their dirty activities across the border.
Anas also revealed that the smugglers bribe farmers with gifts, so that the farmers give them the opportunity to buy their cocoa at lower prices in Ghana and resell it at higher market prices in the Ivory Coast, which will give them (smugglers) higher profits.
The fertilizer subsidy system implemented by the Ghanaian government, to help poor farmers to improve the quality of their cocoa, was also being undermined by officials in charge of the distribution. Officers divert the fertilizers meant for Ghanaian farmers and sell them to Ivorian farmers, while the Ghanaian farmers look on helplessly.
The officers’ personal greed overpowers their sense of dedication to their work. Their job appears to be merely a way of gaining personal wealth.
Due to this revelation, eight people were jailed last year for their involvement in the smuggling process. It has served as a deterrent, and many citizens have praised the braveness of Anas for exposing such corruption at the entry points of the country. Anas has since received a special award for his efforts in saving the nations scarce resources.
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