The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has refuted claims of discontinuing the cocoa syndication loans for the 2023/2024 crop season.

Instead, it clarified that it is currently in the process of securing $800 million from a consortium of banks to facilitate cocoa purchases.

“Since the beginning of the Season, cocoa purchases have been financed with non-collateralised cocoa sales proceeds. COCOBOD is therefore still in the process of securing the syndicated loan for the 2023/24 Crop Season”, it said in a press release.

The statement further clarified that COCOBOD had initially intended to raise an additional $400 million.

“The strategy was therefore, to use a pre-financing arrangement with the international buyers to raise an amount of $400 million for purchases at the beginning of the Season in September 2023”.

“These initial funds were expected to be augmented by an additional US$800 million loan from a syndicate of lenders by the end of November, 2023. After engagements with buyers for several weeks, the arrangement was however discontinued”, it added.

The statement confirmed that the Company's Board has received positive feedback from bankers regarding the Cocoa Syndicated Loan, which has been presented in Parliament for review and endorsement.

“We wish to use this medium to assure our stakeholders that the necessary arrangements have been made to secure enough funding for cocoa purchases for the year under review”, it said.