The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called on the government to immediately release funds to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to enable it to pay the amount it owed to Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs).
According to the Ranking Member on the Committee on Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Offinso South, Mr Isaac Yaw Opoku, the COCOBOD owed the LBCs an amount of GH¢10 billion.
He explained that the situation made it difficult for the LCBs to pay cocoa farmers, which he said affected the livelihood of the farmers.
Mr Opoku made the call at a press conference organised by the Minority Caucus yesterday on the challenges in the cocoa sector.
“The Minority Caucus has noticed with grave concern the precarious situation in which our cocoa industry finds itself. Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) have failed to pay cocoa farmers for cocoa beans sold to them since November 2025; but the LBCs cannot be faulted because monies that they have already spent in purchasing and delivering cocoa to COCOBOD have been locked up without reimbursement,” Mr Opoku said.
“COCOBOD and government must be blamed for failing to reimburse the various cocoa buying companies for purchases already delivered to COCOBOD. The LBCs have borrowed from banks and Off-Taker traders to pre-finance the harvest but, as we speak, COCOBOD owes the LBCs over GH¢ 10 billion being defaulted receipts of cocoa already taken over,” Mr Opoku added.
He accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of failing to fulfil its promise of GH¢ 6000 producer price made to cocoa farmers in the run-up to the December 7, Presidential and Parliamentary elections, and its plan to reduce producer price to enable government pay cocoa farmers.
Mr Opoku further noted that the reasons given by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COCOBOD, Dr Randy Abbey, for the delay in payment to cocoa farmers, including a default in the payment of syndicated loan by the previous administration and the fall in the international price of cocoa, were unacceptable.
According to him, Ghana had never defaulted in the payment of syndicated loans and therefore urged the CEO of the COCOBOD to provide evidence to back his claim.
Additionally, Mr Opoku noted that while it was true that the international price of cocoa had fallen, it was not the first time that had happened, noting “when the NPP assumed office in January 2017, the world market price of cocoa had fallen from USD 3000 per tonne in June 2016 to USD 1800 in tonne, barely enough to pay the cocoa farmer.”
On the issue of contract roll-overs, Mr Opoku said that the erstwhile NPP government inherited a contract roll-over of 190,208 metric tonnes, when it assumed office in 2017.
He also cautioned against the politicisation of COCOBOD by successive governments, including its sales strategy, as well as what he described as internal leadership conflict with the COCOBOD.
Mr Opoku said that internal conflict affected the operations of COCOBOD and needed to be addressed.
“Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his NPP government found ways to cushion cocoa farmers when prices fell, and we expect the President Mahama and the NDC government to do so,” Mr Opoku added.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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