We’ve learnt our lessons; we won’t borrow to finance 2024/2025 crop season – COCOBOD

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced that it will transition to self-financing for the 2024/2025 cocoa crop season, starting in September 2024.

For the past 32 years, COCOBOD has relied on offshore borrowing to finance cocoa purchases through its cocoa syndication programme. However, the organization is shifting its strategy to reduce dependency on external funds.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, August 20, COCOBOD’s CEO, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, explained that this new approach is expected to save an estimated $150 million.

“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 percent, plus the cost, it means that we can save more than $150 million by the decision not to go offshore.

He also denied assertions that COCOBOD was short-changing farmers with its pricing of cocoa.

“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.”