Two Cocoa Processing Companies in the country have jointly constructed a 123,000-dollar three classroom block, kitchen, teacher’s office, and a

12-seater toilet facility, for the Agona Otsenkorang Kindergarten (KG) School in the Central Region.

The Companies are Barry and Callebaut and Chocolate Design from Switzerland and Japan respectively.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Mr Jon Andre, Managing Director (MD) of Barry Callebaut said his company contributed 73,000 dollars, whiles Chocolate Design also paid 50,000 dollars towards the projects.

According to the MD, five potential cocoa growing communities were selected, but Agona Otsenkorang won the bid in 2014.

He said the company, based in Tema processed over 65,000 tonnes of raw cocoa beans from Ghana since its establishment in 2001.

Mr Andre said the company has worked in collaboration with the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), to support the improvement of educational structures in the cocoa-growing communities in the country.

He hoped this would go a long way to assist the children of cocoa farmers to have equal access to quality education.

He said the Trust Fund of the Company was working hard to ensure that education for children in the cocoa-growing communities were properly improved, to supplement government’s efforts to promote education.

The MD stated that the two companies would not shirk their corporate social responsibility to assist people in the rural areas to enjoy better living conditions.

Mr Yagi San, Representative of Chocolate Design in Ghana said over 500 Japanese customers of chocolate have applauded and commended the school project at Otsenkorang.

He expressed happiness about the existing cordial relationship between Japan and Ghana, and hoped that it would continue to bring more economic benefits to the two countries.

The Switzerland Ambassador in Ghana, Togo and Benin, Mr Gerhard Brugger, urged parents to invest heavily in their children’s education to enable them become responsible future leaders.

He said Switzerland had no natural resources so that the government decided to invest heavily in education to produce quality human resource.

According to him, that has helped Switzerland to become one of the attractive countries in the world.

Nana Kofi Asmah, chief of Otsenkorang, thanked the two companies for constructing the school block in the village.

He pledged to ensure the proper maintenance of the project to prolong its life span.