President John Dramani Mahama says Ghana will no longer depend on foreign funding to sustain the cocoa sector, announcing plans to raise domestic bonds worth more than $400 million to restore viability in the industry.
Speaking at the Accra Reset Initiative on the sidelines of the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, the President said Cabinet has decided to finance cocoa operations through local revenue streams rather than continue the practice of using cocoa beans as collateral under terms he described as unfavourable to farmers.
According to President Mahama, Ghana’s reliance on external financing has increasingly left cocoa farmers exposed, particularly during periods of currency instability and production shortfalls.
He noted that the cocoa sector, one of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners and a major source of livelihoods, has faced persistent difficulties in recent years due to currency fluctuations and financing gaps that often compel government to borrow to meet producer price commitments, including the 70 percent target.
Farmers, he said, have repeatedly raised concerns about delayed payments, a situation that has fueled agitation in cocoa-growing communities.
President Mahama stressed that the solution must go beyond emergency loans, insisting Ghana must take bold steps to ensure the cocoa sector delivers greater value to citizens. He said this includes shifting away from exporting raw beans and expanding local processing.
He added that processing more cocoa domestically would help create jobs, stabilise farmer incomes, and reduce the influence of foreign interests that have shaped the sector’s direction for decades.
Ghana is currently the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after Côte d’Ivoire, and the sector remains central to the economy, supporting hundreds of thousands of households nationwide.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
