The signing of the memorandum of understanding by the Ghana Cocoa Board with the Swiss cocoa processor, Buhler, to process Ghana’s cocoa into finished products for the local and the international market is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.The Graphic reports that Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Swiss cocoa processor, Buhler, to process Ghana’s cocoa into finished products for the local and the international market.
The agreement also enables the country to tap into the expertise of the company in chocolate processing through training, product development and technology guidance to help build a robust local capacity in cocoa processing and value addition to meet both domestic and international consumption demands.
The agreement was signed at Buhler’s Abidjan office in Cote d’Ivoire last Sunday.
The Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, signed on behalf of the board, while the President of Buhler for the Middle East and Africa, Mr Heiko Feuring, initialled it for the company.
The CEO of COCOBOD said the agreement would deepen the strong relationship between Ghana and Switzerland, as well as enable them to share more experiences in cocoa processing, where both are significant players.
Mr Aidoo said Buhler was one of the top-class organisations in the world when it came to chocolate technology and expressed the hope that Ghana would leverage the agreement to also enrich its cocoa sector.
He said the country had begun a journey on the path of transformation in its cocoa sector and had been looking out for such partnerships to aid the process.
The newspaper says that the Minister for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has expressed his commitment to strengthening the relationship between Ghana and Nigeria to tap into the latter’s rich experience in the petroleum sector for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
Dr Opoku Prempeh was speaking following a visit to Abuja where he met with his Nigerian counterpart.
The two ministers centered their discussions on leveraging on the experience of Nigeria with which has decades of discovery know-how.
The minister, who is also the Chairman of the Committee of Energy Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said that there was the need for collaborative efforts and drawing of useful lessons Nigeria has accumulated over the years.With Ghana recently joining the comity of oil producing nations, he said, “there is the need to take lessons from Nigeria […]