The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has assured its stakeholders of the company’s readiness to continue to secure an US$800 million syndicated loan to fund cocoa purchases for the 2023/24 crop season.
A release issued by the Public Affairs Department of COCOBOD said it planned a two pronged financing for the 2023/2024 crop season in an effort to diversify its source of funding for the annual cocoa purchases.
“The strategy was therefore to use a pre-financing arrangement with international buyers to raise an amount of US $800million from a syndicated of lenders by the end of November 2023, after engagement with buyers for several weeks, the arrangement was however discontinued”.
“Thus, since the beginning of the season, cocoa purchases have been financed with non-collateralised cocoa sales proceeds”.
But it said, “Cocoa Board is therefore still in the process of securing the syndicated loan for the 2023/24 crop season.”
It continued that the Board has so far received firm response in that regard as the cocoa syndicated loan has been laid in Parliament for consideration and approval.
“We wish to use this medium to assure our stakeholders that the necessary arrangements have been made to secure enough funding for cocoa purchases for the year under review,” it added.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah