During the campaign for the NPP to come into office we heard a lot of ‘One This, One That’ promises. We’ve not been hearing of them so much since the NPP came into power but the President has announced they have another one lined up.
‘One Schoolchild, One Chocolate’ is a planned policy by government which forms part of overall efforts to get Ghana back to the top of the pyramid of cocoa production in the world.
Speaking in Kumasi at the 2017 World Cocoa Day Celebrations, Nana Akufo-Addo said the policy would boost the consumption of local cocoa, and has received tremendous support from local companies.
“…The Ministry of Agriculture through COCOBOD, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection through the school feeding programme, and the Ministry of Education through the Ghana Education Service, are to ensure the sustained provision of cocoa beverages and chocolates to school children from primary school to secondary level,” he said.
“…[Our] target is to provide every Ghanaian student with a bar of chocolate or cocoa beverage each day whilst in school.”
This seems like an ambitious, almost unrealistic target, but according to the President – the policy has received much “needed impetus by some manufacturing companies who have agreed to support the programme”.