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Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has denied claims that it, together with government, failed to account for some US$1.3 billion syndicated loan procured for the 2020/2021 crop season.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaboso Consituency, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, made the claim during an interview with Media General’s Jonnie Hughes.
The allegation came amid his lamentation over the challenges confronting the cocoa industry.
According to him, the sector is struggling and is unable to meet its 800,000 metric tonnes target of produce in the current 2021/2022 crop season. “We are somewhere around 400,000 metric tonnes,” he indicated.
The MP blamed the situation on COCOBOD, accusing it of failing to pay the product buying companies to get the beans from the barns.
“If you go to my constituency for example, as I speak to you, the farmers may have the cocoa beans but they may not have access to money.
“This is the reality, because COCOBOD is owing a lot of the cocoa buying companies. So there is a lot of challenges in the cocoa sector as I speak to you now,” Mr. Akandoh said.
According to him, what worries him is what the syndicated loan approved by Parliament for the purchasing of the beans was used for, which COCOBOD has not been able to account for.
“The disheartening aspect is that they came to Parliament to seek approval for the syndicated loan around $1.3 billion and we approved the money…yet we don’t have money to buy cocoa.
“We have asked several times where the money is and we are not being given any tangible explanations.”
The loan in question was secured in 2019 from a consortium of local and international banks, and the agreement was signed by the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo on behalf of the company.
However, according to its Management in a statement issued in response to the claim, COCOBOD had “met all statutory requirements and agreements with its financial partners in accounting for the syndicated loan for the 2020/2021 crop season which closed in September 2021”.
It revealed further that some $1.45 billion has been disbursed for the purchase of the product among other things for the 2021/2022 crop season.
“COCOBOD has drawn down US$1.45 billion out of the US$1.5 billion facility procured for the present 2021/2022 season, which has gone into financing the purchase of cocoa and other industry costs”.
The Management therefore urged the public to disregard the claims while encouraging interested persons to verify payments made to the licensed cocoa buying companies (LBCs) from the companies or from COCOBOD.
