The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has stated that he together with the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, will now be on the board of the Ghana Cocoa Board.
According to him, a desk will also be instituted to ensure the forward-going of the institution.
He mentioned this in response to a question on the future of COCOBOD amidst high debt levels.
“Both the Governor and I will now be on the board and the Ministry will set up a desk that will work with the Finance division at COCOBOD so that we manage the future in a much stronger way,” he said while addressing the press on October 6, 2023.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison also hinted at the press briefing that the size of this year’s Cocoa Syndicated Loan will reduce to about $800 million, which is a decline from the earlier figure of $1.2 billion.
He explained that this forms part of debt sustainability measures contained in the IMF programme to restore macroeconomic conditions across the cocoa value chain.
Dr Addison confirmed that the cocoa regulator [COCOBOD] will still receive the syndicated loan facility for this year.
“I think that they’re still getting the syndicated loan this year but its just that the size of the syndication is gone from I think $1.2 billion to $800 million,” he noted.
The development is however expected to impact Ghana’s cocoa output for the 2023/2024 crop season.
SSD/MA
Source: www.ghanaweb.com