COCOBOD unable to account for $1.3b cocoa syndicated loan – MP alleges
The Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has accused the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) of not being able to account for the $1.3 billion cocoa syndicated loan secured in 2021.
He noted that the COCOBOD has not been able to give any tangible explanation to what the loan has been used for.
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 tthe COCOBOD.
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However, in an interview with TV3 on Thursday, March 10, 2022, Mr Akandoh indicated that the cocoa sector is struggling financially despite the secured $1.3 billion syndicated loan.
He said, “I was born by a farmer, into a farming community. My constituency is the highest production 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 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.”
