The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has debunked his claims being made by some Licensed Buying Cocoa Companies (LBCs) in the Ashanti Region that it has failed to pay them for produce supplied.
According to the companies, COCOBOD has failed to pay them for cocoa supplies they made two months ago.
But the Public Affairs Manager of COCOBOD, Noah Amenyah tells Citi Business News his outfit is no aware of any such development.
“The Secretary of the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association says it has not come into their notice that there is a significant problem in the payment delays as suggested by some companies. Actually COCOBOD’s has not been approved by the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association to say that our payments have delayed and therefore they are unable to operate.”
One of the suppliers who spoke to Citi Business News on condition of anonymity said, it usually takes about a week for payment to be made.
He however bemoaned the delays by COCOBOD for the past two months without any reasons for the delay.
“Since the new Chief Executive took over we are supplying the cocoa and they are not paying; meanwhile we’ve taken money from the banks with interest that they are supposed to pay interest and they are not writing checks. We don’t have money to do anything and we don’t know what is happening there they are not telling us anything,” the worker lamented.
According to him, the delay is inconveniencing them as they risk huge interests to be paid at the banks.
“Your credit has accrued interest with the banks and that you are going to pay.”
But Mr. Amenyah tells Citi Business News his outfit is facilitating processes to complete all payments within next week.
He however explained that any possible delays may have been instigated by the change in management.
“When they submit their request it is vetted and then the money is paid. You would however reckon that recently we have to do change of signatories because we have new management in place and that has been done and the vetting of those bills are also in the process so we believe that next week those that we have in our possession will be paid for.”
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By: Anas Seidu/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
