A fellow at the Africa Policy Lens, Eric Bioachie Yiadom, has called for urgent structural reforms to address mounting debt and operational inefficiencies in Ghana’s cocoa sector, warning that the industry’s long-standing financial challenges continue to undermine farmers and productivity.
Speaking on Business Focus on February 16, 2026, Eric Bioachie Yiadom said the cocoa sector’s difficulties stem largely from deep-rooted structural weaknesses.
“We have to be able to tackle the structural issues of the debt that is killing the cocoa sector and find a way to reduce it,” he stated.
He added that,“I think the structural problem we need to find a way to address it, because nothing has changed. There are operational inefficiencies that we need to look at,” he said.
The fellow at the Africa Policy lens further noted that while structural constraints account for many of the difficulties cocoa farmers are facing, operational lapses cannot be ignored.
He emphasised that, “All the challenges cocoa farmers are facing today can be attributed to structure, but we cannot take operations out of the equation,”
Meanwhile, in what authorities describe as a major move to stabilise the struggling cocoa industry, Cabinet has directed the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to immediately commence payment of all outstanding arrears owed to cocoa farmers.
The directive was announced on February 13 2026 following an emergency Cabinet meeting convened by President John Dramani Mahama.
The intervention comes amid reports that COCOBOD is indebted to farmers and Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) to the tune of 10 billion cedis, raising concerns about liquidity pressures within the sector.
