COCOBOD Won’t Borrow to Finance 2025 Crop - CEO Joseph Boahen Aidoo

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced plans to shift 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 through its cocoa syndication programme to finance cocoa purchases.

However, the organization is now moving towards reducing its reliance on external funding.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, August 20, COCOBOD CEO Joseph Boahen Aidoo stated that this new strategy is projected to save approximately $150 million.

“Is it good for COCOBOD to always be seen borrowing? Are we comfortable with that label? Today, you have heard that COCOBOD will no longer borrow.

After 32 years, we’ve learned our lessons, and it’s high time we wean ourselves off the offshore international financial markets and finance the crop ourselves. This decision offers significant benefits,” Aidoo explained.

COCOBOD aims to raise $1.5 billion for the upcoming crop season. Aidoo pointed out that avoiding last year’s high interest rates, which were over 8%, would result in significant savings.

He also dismissed claims that COCOBOD is underpaying farmers, emphasizing that the organization has been more than fair with cocoa pricing.

“It is not true that COCOBOD is not offering a fair price to farmers. If you examine the trend, you’ll see that since 2017, COCOBOD has actually been more than fair.

During a period when global prices collapsed, the government and COCOBOD did not reduce the price paid to farmers,” Aidoo added.