The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced that starting from September 2024, it will not be taking syndicated loans to purchase cocoa.
It says it will transition to self-financing after relying on offshore borrowing to purchase cocoa for the past 32 years.
COCOBOD’s Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has indicated that the Board wants to shift its strategy to reduce dependency on external funds.
During a media engagement Tuesday, August 20, 2022, Mr. Boahen Aidoo explained that the initiative, if implemented, will save the nation some US$150 million in estimation.
The CEO indicated that the tag of COCOBOD being known for always borrowing is not that best and it has learnt its lessons.
“Is it good that always COCOBOD should be heard going to borrow? Are we comfortable with that tag? Today, you have heard that COCOBOD is not going to borrow. It is quite a good time for any human being to learn his or her lessons.
“In 32 years, we have learned our lessons and we think that it is high time we wean ourselves from the offshore international financial markets and then finance the crop ourselves here and that is exactly what we are going to do. And I think it comes with a lot of projectory benefits.
“We are looking for $1.5 billion this crop season and looking at the interest rates last year, which were over 8 per cent, plus the cost, it means that we can save more than $150 million by the decision not to go offshore,” he explained.
Commenting on the assertion that his outfit has been shortchanging farmers on the price for the cash crop, the former Member of Parliament for Amenfi East indicated that COCOBOD has been more than fair to cocoa farmers since the NPP administration took over in 2017.
“It is not true that COCOBOD is not giving the farmers a fair price. If you follow the narrative, you will notice that from 2017 on, COCOBOD has even been more than fair.
“The government had been more than fair to farmers because this was a time when prices had collapsed but the government and COCOBOD did not reduce the farmers’ price,” he stated.
COCOBOD CEO explains what accounted for its GH¢3.4 billion expenditure
