President John Dramani Mahama announced on Sunday that government is making efforts to pay bonuses to cocoa farmers in the country.

He said plans were also afoot to increase the producer price of the commodity to make farmers in all the cocoa producing zones comfortable.

President Mahama announced this when he addressed a mini-durbar at Tepa in the Ahafo-Ano South District of the Ashanti Region as part of his three-day official visit to the Region.

President Mahama also inspected construction works on a new District hospital complex at Tepa, and visited Akate farms, a private poultry farm near Mampongteng near Kumasi.

President Mahama said cocoa continued to be the backbone of Ghana’s economy and government would ensure that all necessary measures were taken to encourage farmers to increase production.

He promised that government would continue to invest massively in education to reduce illiteracy and equip the youth with adequate skills to make them self-reliant and useful citizens.

President Mahama said government would continue to resource teachers all over the country to encourage them to put up their best and advised students to take advantage of facilities provided to learn harder to achieve their future goals.

Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem I, paramount chief of the Tepa Traditional Area, appealed to government to rehabilitate the major feeder roads in the district to facilitate the carting of foodstuff from farming areas to the commercial centres.