The government is set to pay GH¢9.7 billion by the end of September 2025 to settle part of COCOBOD’s growing debt, President John Dramani Mahama has revealed.

Addressing Parliament during the 2025 State of the Nation Address, he detailed the financial distress facing the cocoa sector, warning that mismanagement and poor decisions in recent years have plunged COCOBOD into severe debt.

"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 explained that COCOBOD’s financial struggles worsened after it failed to deliver 333,767 metric tonnes of cocoa sold in the 2023/24 crop season at $2,600 per tonne. The contracts were instead rolled over into the 2024/25 season, creating massive revenue losses for both the cocoa regulator and farmers.

"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 rolled-over contract, leading to an estimated revenue loss of $840 million. By the time all outstanding contracts are fulfilled, Mahama warned, COCOBOD and farmers would have lost a total of $495 million.

Beyond the immediate revenue shortfalls, the president highlighted the additional financial burden caused by cocoa road commitments, which amount to GH¢21.7 billion. However, only GH¢4.4 billion of this figure is included in COCOBOD’s overall debt.

"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," Mahama noted.

COCOBOD’s financial decline has intensified concerns about Ghana’s economic outlook, particularly its ability to meet debt obligations. A 2021 Auditor-General’s report had placed COCOBOD’s debt at GH¢12.3 billion ($1 billion) as of September 2020, but the situation has significantly worsened in the years since.

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 restructuring debts totaling 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 reduced to $800 million due to IMF-imposed debt management restrictions, marking the lowest financing secured in 18 years.