The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced a significant change in its financing strategy for the upcoming 2024/2025 cocoa crop season, beginning in September 2024. After 32 years of relying on offshore borrowing to finance cocoa purchases through its cocoa syndication program, COCOBOD is transitioning to a self-financing model to reduce its dependency on external funds.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo, COCOBOD’s CEO, discussed this strategic shift during a media briefing on Tuesday, August 20. He emphasized that this new approach could result in substantial savings, specifically around $150 million. He questioned the wisdom of continued borrowing, stating, “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.”
Aidoo further explained that after three decades of borrowing, COCOBOD has gained valuable insights and now believes it is the right time to move away from the offshore international financial markets. “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.”
For the upcoming crop season, COCOBOD is targeting $1.5 billion. Aidoo pointed out that last year’s interest rates exceeded 8%, adding, “We can save more than $150 million by the decision not to go offshore.”
Additionally, Aidoo addressed claims that COCOBOD was short-changing farmers with its cocoa pricing, refuting these allegations. He stated, “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.”
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