File photo of Ghana COCOBOD headquarters in Accra
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has 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".
In a statement, COCOBOD said: "The strategy was, therefore, 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".
"These initial funds were expected to be augmented by an additional US$800 million loan from a syndicate of lenders by the end of November 2023", COCOBOD explained, adding: "After engagements with the buyers for several weeks, the arrangement was, however, discontinued".
COCOBOD said 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".
As a matter of fact, 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".
"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", COCOBOD said.