Government starts piloting Pension Scheme for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana
The Government of Ghana through Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has started piloting the Cocoa Pension Scheme for Cocoa farmers in Ghana. The piloting exercise is ongoing in New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region.
The pilot is expected to last for two weeks to help the scheme implementers and fund administrators assess it before the nationwide roll-out in October 2021.
New Edubiase being the highest cocoa producing district in the Ashanti region was chosen for the piloting and up to 2000 farmers have been selected for the exercise.
The Pension Scheme which is being sponsored by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) when rolled-out nationwide, will cover registered farmers and their beneficiaries.
How will the Cocoa Pension Scheme work
According to the consultant to the Fund Administrators (Stallion Trust), Mr. Arnold Mensa-Bonsu, Cocoa farmers will be registered in a centralized database called Cocoa Management System (CMS) which will allow farmers to contribute 5% of their cocoa sales to the fund, and COCOBOD will match it with 1% contribution. However, farmers who want to contribute even more, can freely do so.
He further explained that 25% of the contribution will be credited to the farmers personal savings accounts, and the remaining 75% credited to their retirement accounts. Farmers would be able to access 25% of their accrued contributions in their personal savings account after 5 years and 20% after every 2 years.
To qualify to be on the scheme, one must be registered into the CMS and issued a Ghana Cocoa Card.
Current Cocoa Farmers with the Western North region have been registered into the CMS data. Registration in the Ashanti region is currently ongoing. Farmers in all cocoa producing areas in the country will be registered into the scheme.
