Necessary arrangements have been made to secure funding for cocoa purchases – COCOBOD

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCO­BOD) has assured its stakeholders that the necessary arrangements have been made to secure enough funding for cocoa purchases for the 2023/24 crop season.

A statement issued by COCO­BOD it noted, “The Board has so far received firm response from our bankers in this regard, and the Cocoa syndicated Loan has been laid in Parliament for consideration and approval.”

It was in response to some recent publications in the news media in relation to funds for cocoa purchases for the 2023/24 crop season.

The statement explained COCO­BOD planned a two-prong financing for the 2023/2024 crop season in an effort to diversify its source of fund­ing for the annual cocoa purchases.

The strategy, it added, was to use a pre-financing arrangement with the international buyers to raise an amount of US$400 million for pur­chases at the beginning of the season in September 2023.

Those initial funds, COCOBOD said, were expected to be augmented by an additional US$800 million loan from a syndicate of lenders by the end of November, 2023.

However, after engagements with buyers for several weeks, it said the arrangement was discontinued.

“Thus, since the beginning of the season, cocoa purchases have been financed with non-collateralised cocoa sales proceeds. COCOBOD is therefore still in the process of securing the syndicated loan for the 2023/24 crop season,” the statement said.