By Issah Olegor
The growing turbulence in the cocoa sector has once again exposed deep structural weaknesses in the country’s commodity-dependent economy, prompting renewed calls for a shift toward large-scale industrialisation as a pathway to long-term stability.
At the centre of this debate is Onasis Rosely Kobby, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Operations and Technical at the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation, who argues that the cocoa crisis is a clear signal that Ghana must urgently accelerate the development of a comprehensive petroleum and petrochemical hub.
In a statement shared publicly on his social media platforms, Onasis Kobby linked the current instability in the cocoa industry to a historical failure to prioritise value addition.
He noted that for decades, the economic model in key sectors such as cocoa has been built largely around the export of raw materials, leaving the country vulnerable to external market forces and global price fluctuations.
Ghana, one of the world’s leading cocoa producers, has traditionally depended on the export of raw cocoa beans as a major source of foreign exchange. While this model has sustained the economy for generations, it has also meant that the country captures only a small fraction of the global cocoa value chain, with most profits generated abroad through processing and manufacturing.
This dependence, Kobby argued, has left farmers and the broader economy exposed to the volatility of international commodity markets.
According to him, the pattern is cyclical and damaging: when global cocoa prices rise, Ghana experiences short-term economic relief, but when prices fall, the consequences are severe—triggering liquidity pressures, income instability for farmers, and sector-wide financial strain that reverberates through the economy.
He described this boom-and-bust cycle as evidence of a fragile economic structure built on raw exports rather than industrial value creation.
Kobby referenced recent public remarks by the Minister for Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, who outlined the scale of the challenges crippling the cocoa sector and the government’s plans to implement far-reaching reforms.
He said the Finance Minister’s analysis reinforced his belief that Ghana’s development strategy must move beyond sectoral fixes and focus on ambitious national industrial projects capable of transforming the economy.
As part of broader reforms under the John Mahama administration, Cabinet has directed that from the 2026/2027 cocoa season, at least 50 per cent of Ghana’s cocoa beans must be processed locally. In addition, the remaining beans from the 2025/2026 season are to be channelled into domestic processing.
The policy is designed to reverse decades of underutilised processing capacity, strengthen local value chains, stabilise farmer incomes and reduce exposure to global price volatility.
Kobby argued that this cocoa processing directive reflects the same strategic thinking behind the Petroleum Hub project.
Both, he said, are rooted in a shared philosophy: moving Ghana away from the export of raw resources and toward domestic refining, processing and value addition.
He explained that while the new cocoa policy seeks to convert raw beans into higher-value products such as cocoa butter, powder and liquor, the Petroleum Hub project aims to transform crude oil and gas into refined fuels, petrochemicals and industrial by-products.
In his view, both initiatives represent a structural shift toward industrialisation, reduced import dependence, stronger local industries and deeper economic multipliers.
The Petroleum Hub project itself is envisioned as a major industrial infrastructure initiative that would position Ghana as a regional petroleum refining and petrochemical processing centre, serving domestic demand and the wider West African sub-region.
