COCOBOD confident of securing US 800 million loan by end of month 

The Ghana Cocoa Board has re iterated its commitment to secure the needed financing  for the 2023/2024 cocoa season.

Despite the delays is securing the annual syndicated loan which is used for the purchasing of cocoa beans, the Board in a release has said it was confident of securing US 800 million from a syndicate of banks by the end of this month.

The Board has indicated that it was using 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 was therefore, to use a prefinancing arrangement with the international buyers to raise an amount of US$400 million for purchases at the beginning of the Season in September 2023.

Clarifying recent media assertions in a press release by the Public Affairs Department of the board yesterday, about it inability to access the highly lucrative cocoa syndicated loan, COCOBOD revealed that after engagement with buyers the arrangement of initial funds which were expected to be augmented by an additional $800 million loan from a syndicate of lenders was discontinued.

“Since the beginning of the season, cocoa purchases have been financed with non-collateralised cocoa sales proceeds. COCOBOB is therefore still in the process of securing the syndicated loan for the 2023/24 crop season,” the release noted.

The national institution that fixes cocoa prices is therefore assuring stakeholders that it has received firm response from bankers and with the cocoa syndicated loan been laid in Parliament for consideration and approval there will be enough funding for cocoa purchases for the year under review.