The $1.8 billion syndicated loan Ghana procured to purchase cocoa for the 2016-17 season "is all gone" and the country must seek more funding to make purchases for the rest of the season, the new chairman of industry regulator Cocobod said. Ghana is the world's second biggest producer of cocoa behind neighbouring Ivory Coast and the crop, whose season runs from October to September, is one of its top foreign exchange earners along with gold and oil.
As a result, the problem is an additional headache for the new government of President Nana Akufo-Addo, which is also trying to stabilise national finances under an International Monetary Fund programme and restore rapid economic growth.
"The syndicated loan of $1.8 billion that we had hoped to use for this production year unfortunately ... is all gone ... So it falls on us to immediately try and organise some financing," Cocobod's Hackman Owusu-Agyemang said at his swearing-in ceremony.
He gave no details on what he believed had happened to the money or how Cocobod would go about securing additional financing. However, a senior government official told Reuters the shortfall was linked to wider mismanagement at Cocobod. The official, who declined to be named, said the government was now cleaning up the regulator and seeking to impose strong financial management, efforts he believed would encourage banks to participate in next season's syndicated loan.
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