Who will revive Ghana’s collapsed cocoa industry to boost the purchasing power of the EU?

The president of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, signed a decree strengthening the punishments for mining-related offenses as part of the government's effort to combat the practice. The Criminal Code of Ghana was revised on August 20, 2019, making the penalties for illicit mineral mining more severe. An additional provision to the statute increased the maximum term for unlawful mining to twenty-five years in jail and raised the minimum penalty from 10 to fifteen years in prison. However, despite the criminal code's efforts to lock up illegal miners, the operations grew so quickly that they damaged Ghana's major rivers and its ecosystems, which affected the country's agriculture sector, including the cocoa industry, which has been sustaining Ghana’s economy. It was alarming to learn that there were numerous chiefs involved in the illegal mining, and more significantly, that one of the people responsible for the issue was the one who had told Ghanaians he would deal with it. European chocolate ...