The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced a significant shift in its financing strategy, transitioning from offshore borrowing to self-financing for the 2024/2025 cocoa crop season.
In a bold move, COCOBOD’s CEO, Joseph Boahen Aidoo spoke to the media on Tuesday, August 20 said that COCOBOD is ending its 32-year reliance on offshore borrowing, opting to self-finance cocoa purchases for the upcoming crop season, a decision expected to save $150 million.
After 32 years of relying on offshore borrowing, COCOBOD is now weaning itself off international financial markets to finance the cocoa crop locally, a move that will save millions and bring numerous benefits.
“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. It is quite a good time for any human being to learn his or her lessons.”
“In 32 years, we have learned 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. And I think it comes with a lot of projectory benefits”, Mr. Boahen Aidoo stated.
He continued: “We are looking for $1.5 billion this crop season and looking at the interest rates last year, which were over 8 percent, plus the cost, it means that we can save more than $150 million by the decision not to go offshore.”
COCOBOD’s CEO however denies allegations of unfair pricing, highlighting the organization’s commitment to fair prices for farmers since 2017.
“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.
“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.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Nukpeta Yaa Dorcas
