“COCOBOD entered 2025 with roughly GH¢17.8 billion in loans plus operational liabilities” – Majority

Isaac Adongo, the chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, revealed that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) started 2025 with loans totaling over GH¢17.8 billion and additional operational obligations, indicating that the organization was in serious financial trouble.

The Bolgatanga Central MP stated during a press briefing on the current crisis in the cocoa business that COCOBOD’s debt exposure had reached an unsustainable level and that immediate action was necessary.

“COCOBOD entered 2025 with roughly GH¢17.8 billion in loans plus operational liabilities. So loans alone were about GH¢17.8 billion by the beginning of 2025.

“If you add this to other obligations, you will soon come to realise that at this point, COCOBOD was bleeding with an exposure of about GH¢60 billion,” he stated.

Mr. Adongo maintained that it was inappropriate to continue borrowing given the circumstances, emphasizing that the cocoa industry could not survive with such high debt. “Certainly, that vehicle could not be sustainable and needed to be addressed,” he noted.

“If you have a basket in which you put water to drink and the bucket is leaking, do you fix the leak before you put water inside, or do you continue to put the water inside hoping that some will be left for you to drink?” he quizzed.

“Illogical” is how Adongo described the views of individuals who he claimed were advising the government to take on more borrowing in spite of its current liabilities.

“You have GH¢60 billion of somebody’s money. It’s not free money. You are not paying, and you are saying that we should continue even to go and borrow more,” he said.

He insisted that the government should face the financial realities rather than increase COCOBOD’s debt load, arguing that the cocoa industry needs a reset.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com