(Ecofin Agency) - Ghana’s cocoa board (Cocobod) has initiated reforms to clear all its debts which stand at about Ghc19.6 billion ($4.45 billion). This was revealed to Reuters by Joseph Aidoo, chief executive of the board since February 2017.

According to the official, the debt which was owed by the previous management results from uncontrolled spending, and bad utilization of syndicated loans. “Peculiar to loan utilization is the last drawdown of $400 million which was effected on December 20, 2016 at the time the NDC (then ruling party) had woefully lost the December 2016 elections,” Aidoo said.

Moreover, M. Aidoo indicates, the $1.8 billion loan contracted to purchase 850,000 tons of cocoa in the 2016/17 season, was exhausted in January and only 587,125 tons of cocoa was bought.   

“On several instances, the previous government had siphoned monies from Cocobod account for expenses that were unrelated to the regulators’s operations. For example, $25 million was used under the guise of export duty payments to settle judgement debt to a construction firm in January last year,” he added.

Let’s recall that the cocoa sector contributes to 7% of Ghana’s GDP and 30% of its export earnings.

Espoir Olodo