Accra: The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Randy Abbey, has explained the real cause of the recent challenges faced by cocoa farmers and COCOBOD regarding payments and arrears within the cocoa sector.
According to Ghana Web, the collapse of the long-standing syndicated loan agreement has crippled the financing of cocoa purchases. There have been a series of debates from both the Minority in Parliament and cocoa farmers over delays in the payment of arrears owed to them.
Speaking on The Big Issue on TV3, Dr Abbey noted that based on historical cocoa financing, the government initially fully funded cocoa purchases in the country until the introduction of syndicated loans about 34 years ago. He explained that under the agreement, COCOBOD relied solely on loans from a consortium of banks to finance cocoa purchases annually, a system that remained in place for about 32 years.