One of the foreign purchasers of Ghana’s cocoa has already submitted over $4 billion to COCOBOD as part payment to purchase beans for the 2025/2026 crop year. However, sources say a portion of it is to be received before the end of this year.
The reaction of international traders is to obtain the commitment required from COCOBOD for bean supply.
COCOBOD’s New Financing Agreement
In 2023, COCOBOD introduced a new financing package for cocoa buying, under which international traders must pre-pay at least 60% of the worth of their forward contracts at the beginning of the season.
This replaced the thirty years old pre-export syndicated loan from international banks.
Part of the funds of some of the traders’ depositors will be invested to support funding farmers’ purchase from them on partnership agreements with licensed cocoa buying companies (LBCs). In this program, the traders provide funds for LBCs to purchase cocoa and COCOBOD serves as the middleman.
Impact on the Cedi
Experts believe that besides cocoa producers, the cedi would also be one of the largest beneficiaries of such funds since they would arguably significantly increase the foreign reserves of Bank of Ghana.
