The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and a consortium of banks and financial institutions have agreed to a $800 million credit deal to fund the procurement of cocoa beans for the 2023/2024 crop season.
The loan will be utilised to acquire about 47% of the expected 850,000 tonnes of cocoa beans from farmers via Licenced Buying Companies for the 2023/2024 cocoa season.
Meanwhile, COCOBOD has said that tangible actions have been made to guarantee that sufficient money is available to finance its yearly cocoa purchases in the 2023/2024 harvest season.
COCOBOD said it had developed a two-pronged financing plan to guarantee that it received the necessary money for the purchase season, in response to a Reuters story that the business had borrowed up to $200 million from cocoa dealers to bridge its financial deficit.
In reaction to the Reuters article, COCOBOD stated that it had received clear guarantees from its bankers that funds would be available in time for the purchase season, and that a “Cocoa syndicated Loan has been laid in Parliament for consideration and approval.”
The loan facility disbursement year 2023/2024 is scheduled to be used for cocoa purchases and related operations as indicated below:
Costs of farmers’ services
Cocoa diseases and pest management
Fertiliser distribution and application
- Farmer pension plan
- Cocoa trails
- industrial inputs (jute sacks, twine, stencil ink, passbooks, etc.)
- Assistance with child education
Net FOB portion
-Agriculture payments
- Buyer’s profit
- the haulier’s profit
- International marketing operations (warehousing and shipping)
- the expense of disinfestation/grading and sealing
-cost of financing
-The cost of COCOBOD and divisions
additional costs/scale checks and phytosanitary inspections
-rehabilitation
-Establishment of coffee and shea nut plantations