Attendees praise Accra project preparation seminar

Over 70 participants from all over the West African region attended the ICCO’s International Seminar on the Development, Implementation and Evaluation of Cocoa Projects, held in Accra, Ghana in June.

The seminar, kindly sponsored by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Ghana Cocoa Board, aimed to enhance the capacity and skills of relevant officials and other stakeholders involved in the development of the cocoa sector to prepare for and implement cocoa projects.

Opened by the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Stephen Opuni (pictured above, second from left), Mr. Yusuf Daya of Afreximbank (above right) and ICCO Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc Anga (above, second from right), the seminar included presentations from Mr. Yunusa Abubakar and Mr. Moises Gomez of the ICCO, Mr. Ebenezer Tei-Quartey of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr Coffi Noumon of the African Capacity Building Foundation (at left above), Ms. Teresa Widmer of Swisscontact and Mr. Daya.

Over its four days, the seminar covered project identification, project preparation and analysis, prject appraisal and review, project implementation and management, project evaluation and impact analysis, and project management software.

The seminar assessment forms completed by all the participants showed that generally they found the training to have been useful and pertinent in enhancing their knowledge of project management.

At the end of the sessions, Mr. Abubakar presented seminar certificates to all the participants, and thanked the Government of Ghana, the Ghana Cocoa Board and Afreximbank for its support. Dr. F.K. Oppong, Deputy Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, then officially closed the proceedings by encouraging all participants to apply the knowledge that they had gained at the seminar to further develop the cocoa sectors of their respective countries.