COCOBOD sets cocoa price at GH₵42,400 a tonne and turns to local investors for GH₵16.3bn

Pinned summary · as of 05:20

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) plans to raise up to about GH₵16.3 billion, roughly $1.4 billion, from investors inside Ghana to pay for cocoa purchases in the 2026/27 season, which opened on Friday, 25 September 2026. The money would flow through a new subsidiary, Cocoa Capital PLC, after two overseas funding arrangements broke down.

What we know

• COCOBOD is turning to Ghanaian investors for up to about GH₵16.3 billion, roughly $1.4 billion, to pay for the 2026/27 season's cocoa purchases.
• The money is to be raised through Cocoa Capital PLC, a COCOBOD-owned company incorporated on 7 August 2026 with paid-up capital of GH₵5 million, and is made up of GH₵14 billion in short-dated commercial paper plus GH₵2.3 billion in bonds.
• The commercial paper, running for up to 270 days, is meant to cover seasonal purchases, while bonds of up to five years are meant to refinance older COCOBOD debt. The paper is to be sold in stages, and the first stage is aimed at about GH₵4 billion.
• Investors would be repaid from export receivables that COCOBOD has assigned to the vehicle from chosen forward-sale contracts, and six banks and securities firms, among them Absa Bank Ghana, CalBank, GCB Bank and Stanbic Bank Ghana, are running the offer.
• The domestic route follows the collapse of COCOBOD's ten-year syndicated loan with international banks during the 2023/24 season and the failure last season of a separate scheme in which international trading houses paid in advance for purchases.
• COCOBOD rejects the suggestion that it was shut out of overseas markets. Deputy Chief Executive Ato Boateng said on Channel One TV on 28 September that the move is a deliberate change of strategy and that several international banks had approached the board about returning. “It is not that we are forced out of the market,” he said. He added that the earlier buyer-financed model left the purchasing system exposed to world price swings because international buyers stopped funding beans when prices fell, and that the finance ministry took the new plan to Cabinet, which agreed the board should explore local funding.
• The 2026/27 season opened on Friday, 25 September 2026 with a producer price of GH₵42,400 a tonne, up from GH₵41,392, which works out at GH₵2,650 for each 64-kilogramme bag.
• COCOBOD's operating revenue was GH₵48.6 billion in 2025, against GH₵15.8 billion the year before, and its net profit margin moved from minus 35.1% to 10.4%. Cocoa production has reached 771,000 metric tonnes this year, ahead of the 650,000-tonne goal first set, and the board is targeting 683,000 metric tonnes for 2027.
• The Chamber of Cocoa Marketers Ghana says COCOBOD owes licensed buying companies roughly GH₵4 billion for the crop bought last season, and that the delay is making banks reluctant to extend fresh credit for the new season.
• COCOBOD accepts that balances remain unpaid but describes them as a normal end-of-season occurrence that does not signal an inability to pay, and says settling them remains a priority.
• COCOBOD's chief executive, Dr Ransford Abbey, and Mr Boateng met representatives of international cocoa traders and processors in London before the season, at a session organised by GCMC UK, the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company (UK) Ltd. They discussed the new cocoa board law, the financing framework and readiness for the European Union Deforestation Regulation.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

• ?
  The Custodian, drawing on Reuters, suggests COCOBOD has had difficulty raising money from foreign and domestic investors as first planned. COCOBOD denies that lack of access to overseas markets drove its choice, according to Citi Newsroom and MyJoyOnline. Reuters said the board did not respond to its request for comment.
• ?
  MyJoyOnline reports, from a prospectus and an issuance notice, that proceeds of the first commercial paper sale may go first to repaying a bridge loan taken to refinance older debt, even though investors were told the paper funds cocoa purchases. It says neither the size of that loan nor the split of proceeds has been disclosed. Spokesperson Jerome Sam, speaking to JoyNews Research, said the paper is meant for purchases and the bonds for legacy debt. No other report has carried the bridge-loan point.
• ?
  Accounts of the first round differ. The Custodian, citing Reuters, said Cocoa Capital would open with a GH₵2.3 billion bond plus GH₵4 billion of commercial paper. MyJoyOnline and Onua Online describe the commercial paper as coming in three stages of GH₵4 billion, GH₵4 billion and GH₵6 billion.
• ?
  Reuters, as relayed by The Custodian, listed banks, pension funds, insurers, stockbrokers, wealthy individuals, institutions and international cocoa buyers as eligible investors, and said farmers and buyers blamed funding troubles for uncertainty over when the season would open. Only The Custodian carries these points.
• ?
  Citi Newsroom alone reports that COCOBOD and Mr Boateng cited a steadier cedi and falling interest rates as reasons for borrowing at home, that he said fewer dollar flows would support currency stability, and that prices paid to farmers will now follow the world market both up and down.
• ?
  Kumasi Mail quotes COCOBOD's Jerome Kwaku Sam as saying farmers were paid before the buying companies and that a meeting with the chamber is being prepared. Rainbow Radio Online quotes the chamber's chief executive, Victus Dzah, as warning that unpaid arrears could stop some companies sending clerks to buying centres, and reports the chamber wants a firm settlement schedule before the season is launched. Each account comes from a single report.
• ?
  The Vaultz News reports COCOBOD as saying it paid out over GH₵2.68 billion this year under the DDEP and settled GH₵162 million owed to Cocoa Bill holders, and that the new cocoa board law sets a floor of 70 percent of the realised gross FOB cocoa price for farmers. No second report has carried these points.
• ?
  Onua Online adds that the new tonne price is 71.18 per cent of what the board realises on the gross FOB value, that the bag price rose by GH₵63 from GH₵2,587, and that an earlier cut in February 2026 took the bag price down from GH₵3,100 to a figure of GH₵2,587, a move the former administration put down to market pressure and funding constraints. These figures come from that report alone.
• ?
  Onua Online reports that the opposition New Patriotic Party called the new price inadequate and below its campaign promise of GH₵6,000 a bag. It also quotes Fiifi Boafo, a former COCOBOD head of corporate affairs, as saying the government faces a credibility problem, that Ato Forson had spoken of GH₵7,000 and some communicators of GH₵9,000, and asking why farmers were not paid GH₵6,000 after it took office in January 2025. He argued the price could have been adjusted while the NDC was in power. These are critics' views from a single report.

Why it matters for Ghana

Farmers and licensed buying companies depend on the board's money being in place when purchasing begins, and The Custodian, citing Reuters, linked last season's failed pre-financing to late payments to farmers. The producer price of GH₵42,400 a tonne sets what growers in the cocoa-producing regions can expect, while buying companies say unpaid arrears are limiting their bank credit. How COCOBOD pays for the crop also affects how much foreign currency moves through the economy, a point Mr Boateng raised on television.