Ghana’s cocoa regulator has disbursed a further GH¢4.2 billion to domestic cocoa buyers this week in its latest attempt to clear a payment backlog stretching back to November 2025, but cocoa farmers across the country say the money is still not reaching them, deepening a liquidity crisis that has now drawn global scrutiny.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) confirmed the latest release to Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), describing it as part of a coordinated effort to clear outstanding arrears and restore confidence in the sector ahead of the close of the 2025/2026 cocoa season in August.
But a Reuters report published ten days ago found that a previous disbursement of GH¢3.62 billion had not yet reached the farm gate. Farmers and purchasing clerks told Reuters they had heard announcements of the payment releases but their LBCs had not received funds to pay them. Industry figures pointed to one reason: LBCs currently owe local banks between GH¢7 billion and GH¢8 billion in loans taken to prefinance cocoa purchases, and some of the COCOBOD disbursements are being absorbed by those bank debts before farmers see a cedi.
The domestic payment backlog sits within a larger financial picture that has now reached international markets. Bloomberg reported on March 13 that COCOBOD has failed to repay more than $400 million in loans taken from domestic and international Licensed Buying Companies ahead of the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 harvests, raising the risk that the regulator will not have enough cash to buy beans next season, a development that could squeeze global cocoa supplies.
The figure forms part of COCOBOD’s total debt burden of GH¢32.9 billion as at the end of 2024, alongside a negative equity position of approximately GH¢3.8 billion, meaning its liabilities exceed its assets. At the centre of that debt is a series of forward contracts from the 2023/2024 season that were rolled over into subsequent seasons at locked-in prices of approximately $2,600 per tonne, meaning Ghana missed the opportunity to benefit when global cocoa prices surged to between $9,000 and $12,000 per tonne in 2024.
The collapse of COCOBOD’s traditional annual syndicated loan, which for three decades provided between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion each season to fund cocoa purchases, lies at the root of the current cash squeeze. International lenders withdrew after COCOBOD failed to deliver on its first-ever contract default in 2024, forcing the regulator to turn to international traders for emergency prefinancing. That arrangement is now under strain.
COCOBOD’s Head of Public Affairs Jerome Sam said the institution remains committed to settling all outstanding payments to farmers before the season closes in August, and that every cedi owed to LBCs would be paid so that buyers could in turn settle obligations to farmers. Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has announced structural reforms to COCOBOD’s financing model, including a new framework intended to prevent a recurrence of the liquidity failures that have defined the past two seasons.
For Ghana’s estimated one million cocoa farmers, structural reforms offer little immediate comfort. Samuel Adimado, President of the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana (LICOBAG), has urged LBC members to prioritise farmers over bank debts as funds arrive from COCOBOD. Whether that appeal translates into cash at the farm gate before the end of the season will determine how many farmers plant next year’s crop, and with it, the long-term trajectory of Ghana’s position in the global cocoa market.
