In light of the bleak outlook for COCOBOD's refinancing, Bright Simons, vice president of IMANI Africa, has urged banks and investors to prepare for substantial write-offs.

He claims that the board has acknowledged the possibility that cocoa bills may be challenging to refinance.

Bright Simons wrote on January 27, 2023, "Meanwhile, Cocobod finally recognizes that ambitions to raise $3 billion to refinance cocoa bills are a pipe dream," on his Twitter page.Planned substantial write-offs should be taken into account by banks and other investors.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Ghana stated it had secured an agreement with the Ghana Cocoa Board and commercial banks to allow the of use COCOBOD's deposits and placements held at the various banks to cater for retail customers who may not want to roll over their cocoa bills.

This comes after the cocoa regulator [COCOBOD] recently defaulted on payments of its matured 182-day bill for the first time, rolling over outstanding securities of GH¢940.4 million, without the consent of investors.

But the Central Bank in a statement issued on January 23, 2023, admitted that after a meeting held with COCOBOD, “it was agreed that all institutional investors will roll over their maturing cocoa bill for Tender 6155 adding that “financial institutions have agreed to roll over their cocoa bills investments.”

Despite this, the BoG said it has been informed that some financial institutions rather sold their instruments to their retail clients.

“To reduce the cash flow challenges on retail holders of cocoa bills, the Bank of Ghana, Cocobod and the commercial banks have agreed to allow banks to use Cocobod’s deposits/placements held at the various banks to cater for retail customers who may not want a roll-over of their cocoa bills,” the Central Bank said.

“We, therefore, expect that this short-term cash flow challenges facing Cocoa Board will be resolved soon to enable Cocobod meet its obligations to investors,” it added.

It, however, pointed out that the COCOBOD has assured the BoG that the outlook for the 2023 crop season looks promising while cocoa purchasing is also making headway.