COCOBOD reject claims it can’t account for $1.3bn syndicated loan
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has rejected claims that it is unable to account for the $1.3 billion cocoa syndicated loan it secured for the 2020/2021 crop season.
COCOBOD’s response comes on the back of accusations made against the company by the Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who asserted that the COCOBOD has failed to give tangible explanations regarding the use of the loan in the purchase of about 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans in the 2020/2021 crop season.
He said, “I was born by a farmer, into a farming community. My constituency is the highest producer of cocoa in the whole country. Juaboso constituency is predominantly cocoa farmers but unfortunately, the cocoa sector is dying.
“If you look at what is happening in the cocoa sector, for now in the 2020-2021 crop year, we targeted about 800,000 metric tonnes and now we are somewhere around 400,000 metric tonnes.
“The disheartening aspect is that they came to parliament to seek the approval for the syndicated loan which is around 1.3 billion dollars and we approved the money. We were targeting 800 metric tonnes, but now we are somewhere around 400,000 and yet we don’t have money to buy cocoa.
“We have asked several times where the money is, and we are not being given any tangible explanation. If you go to my constituency for example, as I speak to you, the farmers may have the cocoa beans but they may not have access to the money.
“This is the reality because COCOBOD is owing a lot of the cocoa buying companies. So there are a lot of challenges in the cocoa sector as I speak to you now.”
However, COCOBOD in a statement, clarified that it has “met all its statutory requirements and agreements with its financial partners in accounting for the syndicated loan for the crop season which closed in September 2021”.
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Furthermore, it disclosed that it has drawn down US$1.45 billion out of the US$1.5 billion facility procured for the present 2021/2022 season, into financing the purchase of cocoa and other industry costs.
The public is being urged to disregard the false claims by the Juaboso MP “as COCOBOD is on course to meet all its financial obligations to farmers and the LBCs within the current crop season”.
A consortium of local and international banks, in 2019, signed an agreement to lend $1.3 billion to the COCOBOD to be used to purchase cocoa beans from farmers for the 2020/21 crop season.
The loan was expected to be used to purchase about 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans in the next cocoa season.
The agreement was signed on behalf of the COCOBOD by its Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, while representatives of the participating banks signed on behalf of the respective banks.
The signing was witnessed by the then Board Chairman of COCOBOD, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, the then Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, and some management members of the COCOBOD.
