Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo has reacted to the announcement by the Minister Finance that he [Ofori-Atta] together with the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, will now be on the board of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in an attempt to salvage the heavily indebted institution.
According to Ken Ofori-Atta, a desk will also be instituted to ensure the forward-going of the cocoa sector regulator which has been faced with huge debts in recent times.
Isaac Adongo reacting to this 'laughed off' the move when addressing journalists adding that the move would only add to the woes of COCOBOD which is facing a myriad of challenges.
"For instance, the BoG Governor instead of returning profit in 2022 only returned with a negative equity of GH¢55 billion and as if that is not enough, Governor Addison returned with a negative reserves of GH¢70 billion, wiping of the entire monetary base of our country," he lamented.
"He [Governor Addison] has succeeded in creating the Central Bank into a policy insolvent institution which is now bankrupt and needs recapitalization," he added.
Dr Adongo further suggested that the "Ken Ofori-Atta, Dr Addison duo is a poisoned chalice...so if COCOBOD is sick and wants to survive, you rather compound the problems by giving it a poisoned chalice?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison has hinted that the size for this year’s Cocoa Syndicated Loan will reduce to about $800 million, which is a decline to the earlier figure of $1.2 billion.
He explained that this forms part of debt sustainability measures contained in the IMF programme to restore macroeconomic conditions across the cocoa value chain.
Speaking at a joint IMF-Finance Ministry press briefing in Accra on October 6, 2023, Dr Addison confirmed that the cocoa regulator [COCOBOD] will still receive the syndicated loan facility for this year.
“I think that they’re still getting the syndicated loan this year but it’s just that the size of the syndication is gone from I think $1.2 billion to $800 million,” he noted.
The development is however expected to impact on Ghana’s cocoa output for the 2023/2024 crop season even as government restructured cocoa bills under the current IMF programme in order to achieve some stability with the debt levels.
The Cocoa Syndicated loan is to boost activities in the cocoa sector as this is one of the country’s highest export commodities.
YAM/NAQ
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Ranking Member of Parliament's Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo