The Minister of Roads and Transport, Dr Richard K. Anane says the country lost about 60,000 tonnes of cocoa between January and June this year through smuggling.

He noted that lack of transportation in most cocoa producing areas has resulted in this dangerous practice. Dr Anane said this after a three-day tour of some highways and feeder roads in the Western Region. He expressed the government's commitment to rehabilitating the country's infrastructure in order to curb the rampant smuggling. He said "Lack of motorable roads, health centres and communication facilities, have separated a large portion of the region from the entire nation?. He also gave the assurance that some of the roads would be tackled this year to alleviate the plight of many rural dwellers.

Dr Anane said the Western Region, being the "resource basket" of the country, should not be allowed to remain in its present deplorable state. He said "It is in the nation's interest to exploit its vast resources by the provision of appropriate infrastructure," indicating that construction would begin on most roads in the region by the end of October. He said "Already parts of the trans-ECOWAS highway has become unmotorable, we must therefore ensure that it is not cut-off from the project. Dr Anane called on timber and mining firms in the region to contribute to the rehabilitation of some of the road networks.

In a related development, Dr Richard Anane has appealed to Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to ensure that smuggling is minimized along the country's borders. He said this during an interaction with CEPS and GIS personnel at Elubo as part of a three-day tour of the Western Region. He said "Without you many of the nation's scarce resources and valuable products would be smuggled out of the country.

Dr Anane said long storage of cocoa beans in warehouses, coupled with the bad road networks, had contributed to cocoa smuggling. He therefore called on all personnel manning the various borders to "show the Ghanaian in you and put Ghana first in all your dealings?.