After a road-show in London in the United Kingdom, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has received over $1.7billion worth of bids from international banks.
This amount is far and above the $1.3 billion that COCOBOD had targeted to raise to purchase 850,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans that the country has forecast to produce.
The loans from international banks will used to purchase cocoa beans from licensed buying companies during the 2017/18 season.
Information reaching The Finder indicates that close to 30, including new ones, have signed up to the syndication.
The over $1.7 billion of bids received, so far, means that the loan is already oversubscribed by over $400 million and this amount could further go up as the syndicated loan is still open for more lenders to join until September.
The cocoa industry regulator received $1.8 billion last year for the 2016/17 crop purchases.
However, the new Board of Directors and new management have said the $1.8 billion had been exhausted despite outstanding payments yet to be made.
The newly sworn-in Chairman of COCOBOD, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, said it is worrying that the funds were all not invested in the cocoa sector to improve this year’s yield saying “there is still cocoa out there that we must buy.
“Obviously, we did not use all the money to buy the cocoa. There are still commitments out there that we must take care of. There was indiscipline in use of the money,” he lamented.
$200million for the rest of season
Consequently, COCOBOD raised $200 million in a bond issued through the Central Bank to cover its operations for the rest of the cocoa season.
COCOBOD has, since the 1992/3 cocoa season, resorted to the international market in raising money for funding the purchase of cocoa beans from farmers through licensed buying companies.
The amount raised has risen from $140million in the maiden attempt to peak at $2 billion in the 2010/11 cocoa season, the period the country grossed over one million metric tonnes of the crop.
Source: The Finder
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REGARDLESS OF THE NPP SPANNING THE WORLD TO SEEK LOANS TO AUGMENT THE OPERATIONS OF COCOABOD, FORMER PRESIDENT ***barred word*** AIDE EXTRAORDINAIRE DR. OPUNI MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE BILLIONS SIPHONED OUT GHANA!!!!!!
@Ndoum God bless you. we keep recycling leader what do you expect. I was disappointed in Nana addo when he started by appointing Kuffour Era Ministers. Im not JK did not do well, but we need forward and dynamic thinkers now. not tea drinkers and repetition. The earlier they change the better. What happened to Value added to our cocoa.. this is eventually selling our cocoa before they are even planted. and my grand father is wassa will get just chicken change fater all his toils in the thick forest
When will dynamism, innovation and proper governance ever come to Ghana? Nana Addo made so much noise about change, describing Ken Ofori Atta as the financial wizard, but they came in and have repeated in a similar manner how cocoa purchases is funded, going to London to do road show and with their "egoistic cliché" the amount required was oversubscribed, I am convinced that people in authority in Ghana are lazy in deep thinking, instead opting for their easier and the convenient route but this option will never lead to any progress or wealth creation in our country. Maintenance ration will be the order of the day and the status quo will prevail if we do not challenge our leaders to be strategic thinkers. My dear friends, always study mathematics and a lot of presumed difficult thinking stuff will come to you very easily. Ghana pays its cocoa farmers in Cedis, we pay cocobod staff in Cedis, we pay cocoa research staff in Cedis, probably the only imported item in the cocoa production chain is the fertilizer, which might not cost more than 100 million if we do not include "coefficients", what is the ECONOMIC argument for going to borrow in the London market either in dollars or pounds or euros, changing to Cedis just to purchase cocoa? Cocobod has been in existence since God knows how many years, are we saying cocobod has not generated any reserve that can be used for annual purchases? Why can’t govt of Ghana take a five year plan to reduce this syndicated loan 20% annually and completely eliminate within 5 years, by issuing cocoa bonds in Cedis? If we can issue so called energy bonds, why not cocoa bonds? by issuing these bonds, our new pension trustees can buy those bonds in addition to the banks and other financial institutions, the net effect is that , there is no expensive arrangement fee in the UK, no travel to London and back and forth with all per diems, but most importantly we get to keep our hard earned cocoa dollars in full with no restrictions. Indonesia produces far, far less cocoa than Ghana, but their cocoa industry is worth 60 Billion USD. Nana Addo please think deep, please think deep and come out with innovative ideas. Long live Ghana. There is no politics in these, just a candid opinion.