The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced that it will no longer rely on offshore borrowing to finance cocoa purchases for the upcoming crop season. Instead, the organization will transition to self-financing starting in September 2024.
Speaking to the media, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo said “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.”
Mr. Aidoo explained that the organization has learnt from past experiences and is now ready to wean itself off external funding.
“It is quite a good time for any human being to learn his or her lessons. In 32 years, we have learnt 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,” he added.
He also addressed concerns about cocoa pricing, stating, “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.”
According to him, “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.”