New Tafo, Sep. 11, GNA - President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, on Thursday appealed to Ghana to assist his country to promote its agriculture, particularly in mass cocoa production. He said although the crop was brought to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea, Ghana was far ahead in the production and transformation of cocoa into finished produce.

President Mbasogo made the appeal when he visited the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Akyem New Tafo on Thursday, as part of his three-day state visit to Ghana, amidst high expectation of strengthening of ties between the two countries for economic and other cooperation. He said cocoa production formed a major income and economic backbone for his country some years ago, but the discovery of oil has made people left the industry, which had affected production of the crop. President Mbasogo said there was the need for Equatorial Guinea to revitalize the cocoa industry for fear of decline in oil. He said: "If we are not careful and we rely solely on the production of oil and the oil wells get exhausted in future, we will come back to square one and it will not augur well for us".

President Mbasogo said that if Equatorial Guinea had continued to depend on cocoa as its major foreign exchange earner along side oil production, as Ghana was doing, his country would have been better off. He expressed his happiness that Ghana has discovered oil but cautioned that other economic activities such as cocoa and timber production should not be neglected. President Mbasogo praised Ghana for its democratic credentials and said other African countries were learning from the achievement. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi assured the Equatorial Guinean leader that Ghana would do all it could to assist his country to benefit from cocoa production in addition to oil production. The Executive Director of the CRIG, Mr Franklin Manu-Amoa said the Institute was established first as West Africa Cocoa Research Institute to cater for cocoa production in the West African sub-region until it was changed to its present name after Ghana attained independence in 1957. Equatorial Guinea with a population of 676,000, according to the United Nations 2009 report, is a small country in West Africa, which has high value resources such as crude oil, timber and cocoa.