The African Development Bank (AfDB) says it will soon transfer a 600 million dollar loan facility it approved to COCOBOD to help grow Ghana’s cocoa sector.
The agreement for the funds was signed in November 2019, but the money is yet to hit the accounts of the Bank of Ghana, due to procedural arrangements.
Speaking to journalists almost five months after the agreement was signed, the Dean of Executive Directors of the African Development Banks, Bright Okogu, assured that the processes for transferring the funds will be completed soon.
“There are processes that both parties must fulfill. When I talk of both parties, I’m talking about the customer (Ghana) and the client, African Development Bank,” he stressed.
Mr. Okogu stated that the team from the African Development Bank is satisfied with how government has fought to maintain fiscal stability.
“The AfDB is primarily concerned about achieving macroeconomic stability,” he said, adding that Ghana has done well in the past two years to keep macro variables such as inflation at sustainable rates.”
Fiifi Boafo, the Public Affair Manager of COCOBOD, said his entity is hopeful the AfDB will transfer the funds soon, as COCOBOD embarks on all the necessary requirements to access the loan.
About the $600 million loan
The 600 million dollar loan facility was signed in 2019 by COCOBOD, African Development Bank, Credit Suisse AG, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited to boost cocoa production in Ghana – the world’s second-largest cocoa producer.
COCOBOD is expected to use the facility to raise cocoa yields per hectare and increase Ghana’s overall production. These include financial interventions to sustainably increase cocoa plant fertility, improve irrigation systems, and rehabilitate aged and disease-infected farms. The funds will also help increase warehouse capacity and provide support to local cocoa-processing companies.
Ghana’s cocoa sector employs some 800,000 rural families and produces crops worth about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually.
COCOBOD is a fully state-owned company solely responsible for Ghana’s cocoa industry, controlling the purchase, marketing and export of all cocoa beans produced in the country.