NPP Govt Left Behind Debt Ridden Crisis at COCOABOD- Eric Afful

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Development, Hon. Eric Afful, has issued a scathing rebuttal to recent criticisms from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), detailing a legacy of financial mismanagement that nearly collapsed Ghana’s cocoa industry.

Ina press statement Hon. Afful said the current challenges facing cocoa farmers are the direct result of “reckless” decisions made by the NPP regime between 2021 and 2024.

The core of the controversy centers on a 2023/2024 syndication facility totaling $800 million.

According to Hon. Afful, the previous administration secured these funds for cocoa purchases but failed to deliver approximately 333,000 metric tonnes of beans to creditors.

Even more concerning is the allegation that the funds intended for these purchases cannot be traced within COCOBOD’s books as seed money, leaving the institution financially unattractive to international lenders for the 2024/2025 season.

This “missing” seed fund triggered a domino effect across the rural economy. Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), including the state-owned Produce Buying Company (PBC), were forced into a state of collapse without the liquidity needed to buy beans at the farm gate.

The resulting fallout has brought significant hardship to transporters, carriers, and thousands of direct and indirect workers at district depots and national harbors.

Despite this grim inheritance, Hon. Afful highlighted the aggressive measures the NDC government has implemented since January 2025 to stabilize the sector.

A primary pillar of this recovery is the return to the free fertilizer distribution model used between 2014 and 2016.

The MP for Amenfi-West reminded the public that when the NPP took office in 2017, they allegedly sold fertilizer to farmers for 80 GHS per bag, supplies that had already been procured by the previous NDC government to be distributed for free.

To address the credit crunch, the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance are currently finalizing alternative funding measures to replace the traditional cocoa syndication process.

This transition is already underway to ensure that cocoa purchases continue uninterrupted. Furthermore, the government has committed to paying farmers 70 percent of the world market price to ensure fair compensation amidst global price fluctuations.

The drastic decline in production had plummeted from 967,000 metric tonnes in 2016 to less than 400,000 metric tonnes in 2024 the government has launched a robust Cocoa Rehabilitation Program aimed at restoring yield volumes.

Hon. Afful also noted that the current administration is now tasked with the arduous labor of delivering the 333,000 metric tonnes of cocoa that were owed to international clients by the previous regime.

He contended that the NPP lacks the “moral right” to criticize the current administration, asserting that the NDC is currently busy solving the very structural and financial crises it inherited.