COCOA SECTOR COLLAPSING …..Cocoa Syndicated loan diverted, Board Chair and CEO fighting!

The sustainability of the Ghana’s Cocoa sector is highly threatened, as for the first time in the contemporary history of this country, COCOABOD does not have funds available to procure Cocoa beans from farmers and for export, The Horizon has learnt.

COCOABOD CEO, Joseph Boahen Aidoo

Very reliable sources within COCOABOD reveal that part of the $1.3 billion Cocoa syndicated loan sourced for 2017/2018 crop season purchases had been diverted  to fund free SHS hence rendering the entity handicapped, culminating in the difficulty to buy outright produce from farmers.

They say due to non-availability of funds, Cocoa farmers across the Cocoa growing areas of the country are being begged to sell their produce on credit.

The diversion of the loan, according to The Horizon sources has the tendency to damage COCOABOD’s hard earned reputation and the goodwill always enjoyed in the international financial market as a very credit worthy entity and that likely to bring in its wake dire consequential effect to the Ghanaian economy and the people.

The challenges of farmers, according to the sources have been compounded. They note that persons who are conversant with the practice in Cocoa growing areas will tell you that even before a crop season opens, farmers would normally go to the purchasing Clerks for cash advance in order to be able to cater for some pressing needs and repay as soon as the produce is ready to be sold. 

Akosua Yeboah,  a Cocoa farmer in Obogu, near Joaso in the Asante Akyem South District of the Ashanti region said she and her other farmer colleagues had handed their produce to purchasing Clerks for months and have not been paid and that the only excuses offered is Government has not released funds for payment.

The Cocoa Roads project, designed to improve access roads in Cocoa growing areas across the country, aggressively pursued by the previous regime had been halted leaving the roads in more than terrible conditions.

The COCOABOD Chief Executive Officer [CEO], Joseph Boahen Aidoo is reported to have said the Volta Region Cocoa roads project had been terminated because the region produces no Cocoa.

Also, instituted incentivized scheme for COCOABOD workers have also been cancelled leaving workers with little or no motivation to deliver, threatening the output of the Cocoa sub-sector.

COCOABOD Board Chair, Hackman Owusu Agyemang

The Horizon has also been told the Board Chair of COCOABOD, Hackman Owusu Agyemang is at loggerheads with the CEO, Joseph Boahen Aidoo who is said to be totally inept as a manager.

The Board Chair who is almost always seen within the premises of COCOABOD is said to be running the entity as if he is the CEO, partly accounting for the differences between the two men. 

More revelations and reactions anon!