The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has recommended to cocoa farmers in Sefwi Bekwai in the West Northern Region of Ghana to temporarily hold off on signing any standard form F document presented them by Genser Energy Ghana Limited (‘GEGL’).
The Deputy Public Affairs Director of COCOBOD, Eric Owusu advised farmers to hold on giving up their lands until the legal team dispatched by the board properly investigates the matter to address their concerns.
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“We advise the farmers to hold off on signing the standard form F from Genser Energy and wait till the COCOBOD investigates the matter and resolve the issue for them. I don’t know how Genser Energy arrived at negotiations with farmers. This is a land issue and our lawyers are working on it,” he stated.
Reports reaching Happy98.9FM after it started its ‘Cocoa Series, The Inside Story’ indicate that Genser Energy Ghana Limited (‘GEGL’) which provides distributed power generation solutions in Ghana to multinational industrial and mining companies seeks to take lands of cocoa farmers in Wassa to expand their business.
It is claimed that the company has already started valuing lands of farmers in the area without consulting them and forcing them to sign over their lands and this has caused tension amongst the farmers.
The attention of COCOBOD was drawn to this land takeover by Genser after a petition from the Sefwi Bekwai Cocoa Cooperative Union reached them. COCOBOD which is passionate about farmers and would not look on for farmers to lose their lands and affect Ghana’s cocoa production capacity quickly intervened.
“We assigned a COCOBOD lawyer to the case immediately it was brought to our attention. Investigations are still going on and the legal team is meeting with the various parties involved in the development. We have the interests at farmers at heart and we will not allowed them to suffer,” he told Happy98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
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Genser Energy Ghana Limited provides distributed power generation solutions in Ghana to multinational industrial and mining companies including Gold Fields Ghana, Kinross Gold Corporation and more recently Perseus Mining.
The company intends to build over 170km of natural gas pipelines connecting its existing plants with the Ghana National Gas Corporation’s facilities, increase the total capacity of its existing plants from 100MW to 190MW and invest in new 161kV transmission lines and seeks out these lands for their expansion project.
