We’ll use self-financing alongside syndicated loans for next crop season – COCOBOD

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has reiterated plans to implement a self-financing model for the 2024/2025 cocoa crop season.

He clarified, however, that this initiative will operate alongside the traditional syndicated loan system.

COCOBOD recently unveiled its intention to shift towards self-financing for the upcoming season, but Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam contradicted this announcement, stating that the government will still seek external funding to support the cocoa sector.

Speaking during a meeting with farmers from various cocoa districts in Kumasi on Friday, Aidoo assured that the self-financing model will be integrated with the existing loan structure, ensuring a blended approach to funding the sector.

“It is just a blend. We are blending what we’ve been doing for years. I don’t think there is anything wrong with introducing a new thing. Once you have an existing model, you can only combine that model with a new one, and I believe that if it works, then Ghana will work with that model going forward.

“We have already tried it during the last crop season, from June up to the end of August. That was the model we were using to buy cocoa and ship, and it has worked, but we want to scale it. So even as we may be going for a loan, because when you talk about syndication, it is like going to borrow, and what we are doing will not require borrowing. So if we are blending not borrowing with borrowing, I don’t think it should become an issue.

“We want to implement the not borrowing, thus the self-financing. That is what we are starting the season with, and once it works, there will be no need for us to go for borrowing,” he stated.