Joseph Boahen Aidoo

Hon Joseph Boahen Aidoo was appointed Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board in March 2017.

He draws from over three (3) decades of experience in research in academia; policy formulation and implementation; legislation and Governance at the local, national, and international levels.

His management style as the head of Ghana’s cocoa regulatory authority has been guided by three (3) main goals;

• First, to improve the earnings, welfare and living standards of cocoa farmers;
• Second, to increase the productivity of farmers through the introduction of Productivity Enhancement Programmes, and
• Third, to significantly increase the portion of the revenue of the multi-billion-dollar international cocoa and chocolate industry, which accrues to Ghana by fostering the growth of the local cocoa processing and value-addition industry.

Under his stewardship, Ghana recorded its highest ever cocoa production volume of over One Million Metric Tonnes.

He is also internationally credited with spearheading the establishment of the Living Income Differential (LID) on the sale of cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire which ensures that cocoa farmers receive an extra $400 income on every tonne of cocoa they sell.

For that achievement, Côte d’Ivoire conferred on him their national award of Commander of the National Order of Merit and Ghana followed suit with its National award of Companion of The Order Of Volta.

Among the critical programmes and interventions that Hon Aidoo has introduced and which have led to the attainment of these unmatched achievements in Ghana’s cocoa sector, are the nationwide Mass Pruning and Hand Pollination Programmes to improve yields on cocoa farms; the distribution of dual-purpose motorized slashers and pruners to replace the use of labour intensive tools on cocoa farms; the free cutting and replanting of CSSVD affected farms and the revamping of Ghana’s cocoa processing sector to increased local value addition.

Prior to his appointment at Ghana Cocoa Board, Hon Aidoo was elected to serve three successive terms as a Member of Parliament. For half that same period, he also served as a Minister of State.

Before joining active politics, he was a lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Land Management and Development at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). For close to two decades, he collaborated on a major international research programme with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPR) and H. R. Wallingford and is also credited with making outstanding contributions to the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) research into land tenure and agricultural productivity, particularly, in cocoa-growing areas in Ghana. Consequently, he has written extensively on Ghana’s land tenure system and its cocoa industry.