Ghana Cocoa Board says processes have commenced to access US$1.5 billion dollars in its annual syndicated loan for cocoa purchases in the 2021/22 crop year.
The facility is expected to be available from next month when Ghana’s major crop cocoa season begins.
This year’s COCOBOD cocoa syndicated loan is US$200 million more than the US$1.3 billion secured for the 2020/21 season and its Chief Executive, Joseph Boahen Aidoo explained why.
“We have exceeded our production target for the year and the money we took as loan didn’t take us anywhere,” Aidoo said.
According to him, talks with the banks and other partners are in progress, assuring a deal by the opening of the oncoming crop season.
“Very soon, we will sign the syndicated for the next crop season and I must say we have made arrangements to get the banks on board to chart this path” he noted.
Mr Aidoo was upbeat about the 2021/22 season buoyed by the historic achievement of the just ended crop year.
The world’s second-largest cocoa producer crossed the one-million-tonnes production mark for the first time in a decade, with data pointing to 1.1 million tonnes as of last week.
Meanwhile, the Cocobod Chief Executive has praised Olam Cocoa for its significant contribution towards exceeding the one million tonnes production target.
Mr Aidoo specifically expressed Cocobod’s appreciation to Olam for advancing payment to farmers ahead of the Board’s seed fund for Licensed Buying Companies.
The Cocobod boss made the remarks at the annual Olam Managers Conference at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Kasoa, Ghana’s Central Region.
The 2021 edition of the Managers’ Conference organized under the theme ‘Delivering FY21 in the face of current industry dynamics’, brought together some 500 managers of the business drawn from across Olam Cocoa’s operational areas.
The country head of Olam Ghana, Mr. Amit Agrawal, said, “Olam Ghana has, within a short period, birthed six different businesses which are all leading in market share. Olam is the fifth-largest company in Ghana, according to the latest Ghana Club 100 rankings, based on the size of revenue.”
He indicated that these milestones have been possible because of hard work, good processes, and the continuous promotion of the welfare of staff.
He said Olam’s foresight and investment in the digitisation of its business processes aided them to absorb the shocks of COVID19 that has adversely affected many businesses.
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