Access Bank Ghana Plc and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support cocoa and commodity trade financing in Ghana.
Under the agreement signed on January 23, 2026, there will be an expansion of affordable financing for Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) and an improvement in the resilience, productivity and sustainability of Ghana’s cocoa sector.
The partnership will see the IFC, through its own resources and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP), provide up to 67 million United States dollars in unfunded risk participation facilities, thereby enabling Access Bank Ghana to extend up to 134 million dollars in financing to seven leading LBCs.
The agreement will also ensure improved LBC liquidity, enhanced traceability systems and enable the procurement of more sustainably produced cocoa beans while simultaneously benefiting thousands of smallholder farmers.
It will also seek to strengthen supply chain transparency and support improved environmental and social standards across the industry.
At the signing ceremony in Accra, Managing Director of Access Bank Ghana, Pearl Nkrumah, said Access Bank’s support to LBCs will unlock the liquidity they need during the purchasing season, help improve traceability and encourage more sustainable sourcing practices that will position Ghana’s cocoa sector for long term competitiveness.
She stated further that this partnership with IFC is deliberate and designed to scale financing responsibly while ensuring timely payment to farmers and strengthening liquidity across the cocoa ecosystem.
She noted that beyond financing, this partnership will deliver broader economic and social impact to players across the entire cocoa value chain and entire communities.
Natalie Kouassi Akon, the IFC Division Director for West Africa, Gulf of Guinea, noted that the signing of the agreement is a signal of the future that we want to build.
She acknowledged that there is a yawning unemployment gap among the youthful population in the sub region, a gap which will not be filled if concerted effort is not made to transform the productive sectors of the region’s economies to absorb this group.
This, she said, is why agriculture and its value chains, like cocoa, matter far beyond farming, as a properly financed cocoa sector that is sustainably managed will create the needed jobs and strengthen local enterprise.
In spite of the pivotal role of the cocoa sector in sustaining the national economy and rural livelihoods, she lamented the many constraints that continue to bedevil the essential crop, particularly access to finance and reliable financing.
Ms Akon noted that LBCs play an important role, yet without capital, the entire cocoa value chain is weakened.
In view of this, she stated that our partnership with Access Bank will enable them to scale lending responsibly by ensuring that capital flows where it matters the most, to businesses that connect smallholder farmers to markets.
The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Matilda Asante Asiedu, who witnessed the signing ceremony, stated that the risk sharing guarantee scheme between the IFC and Access Bank represents a very strategic partnership to help unlock and open opportunities for Ghana’s agricultural sector.
She said this scheme is not only designed to harness the opportunities in the cocoa value chain, but also something that aligns very closely with our national priorities.
She noted the scheme is strategically designed to provide the working capital for LBCs, whom she described as the backbone of Ghana’s domestic cocoa purchasing system.
The Deputy Governor said ensuring the liquidity of these entities is not merely a commercial objective but a national priority that does not only safeguard rural livelihoods but strengthens the national currency and ensures the resilience of the exchange rate.
She commended the IFC for their dedication to the long term economic fortunes of Ghana.
Mrs Asante Asiedu was positive about the steady improvement in the macroeconomic conditions in the country and expressed her optimism that this will provide the foundation for banks operating in the country to recalibrate their business model and expand financing to the real and productive sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture, which is the major employer in the country.
