COCOBOD and Ghanaian cocoa farmers are set to lose a staggering $495 million by the time all outstanding rolled-over contracts are fulfilled, President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed.

Delivering the 2025 State of the Nation Address in Parliament, he attributed the losses to poor financial decisions and mismanagement within the cocoa sector in recent years.

"The hope of cocoa farms is also highly indebted. Its balance sheet indicates a total debt of GH¢32.5 billion, of which GH¢9.7 billion is due to be paid at the end of September 2025," Mahama stated.

He revealed that in the 2023/24 crop season, COCOBOD was unable to supply 333,767 metric tonnes of cocoa that had already been sold at $2,600 per tonne. Instead, the contracts were deferred to the 2024/25 season, leading to significant financial setbacks.

"This implies that for every tonne of cocoa delivered this year, in fulfillment of the rolled-over contract, COCOBOD and cocoa farmers are going to lose $4,000 in revenue," he added.

So far, COCOBOD has supplied 210,000 tonnes under the deferred contracts, incurring a revenue loss of $840 million. The remaining deliveries are expected to result in an additional $495 million loss, further deepening the financial strain on the cocoa sector.

Beyond these losses, Mahama pointed to excessive spending on road projects under the Cocoa Roads Programme, which has worsened COCOBOD’s financial position. He disclosed that while commitments for cocoa roads amount to GH¢21.7 billion, only GH¢4.4 billion of this figure is reflected in COCOBOD’s official debt records.

"This debt has arisen mainly because of the decision in 2019 and 2020 to award road contracts worth over a billion dollars because of the election," he noted.

COCOBOD’s worsening financial position has raised serious concerns about Ghana’s economic stability. A 2021 Auditor-General’s report put the regulator’s debt at GH¢12.3 billion ($1 billion) as of September 2020, but the situation has since deteriorated.

Earlier this year, COCOBOD defaulted on payments for its 182-day treasury bill, rolling over GH¢940 million ($79 million) in outstanding securities, and later restructured debts amounting to GH¢7.93 billion ($661 million).

Ghana had initially planned to secure $1.2 billion in syndicated loans for the 2023/24 cocoa season, but this was later revised to $800 million due to IMF-imposed debt management restrictions, marking the lowest financing secured in nearly two decades.