President John Dramani Mahama has declared that Ghana will stop using foreign financing to purchase cocoa and will ban the export of all unprocessed mineral ores by 2030, signalling a fundamental shift in how Africa’s second-largest cocoa producer manages its most critical natural resources.
The president made the twin announcements at the closing of his high-level side event, “Accra Reset’s Addis Reckoning,” held on the sidelines of the 39th African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, February 14, 2026.
“One of the key decisions we’ve made is to stop accepting foreign funding for the purchase of our cocoa. We are going to raise domestic bonds. We have enough cedis in Ghana to pay for our cocoa,” President Mahama declared.
He explained that under the current foreign-backed financing model, cocoa beans are pledged as collateral to external lenders, a structure that prevents domestic processors from accessing the commodity. Despite having capacity to process 400,000 tonnes of cocoa beans annually, Ghana has been compelled to ship virtually all of it abroad.
He also pointed to the volatility such arrangements create. Ghana set a producer price when cocoa traded at $7,200 per tonne and the cedi stood at 11.5 to the dollar. Losses followed when prices dropped to $4,200 while the cedi simultaneously strengthened to 10.7.
Beyond cocoa, Mahama set a firm 2030 deadline to end the shipment of raw mineral ores, naming manganese, bauxite, and iron ore as commodities that must be processed on home soil before any export is permitted.
He tied both decisions directly to job creation and the economic aspirations of Africa’s youth. “That is the only way we can provide opportunities for our young people. Our young people are less patient than our generation. They want to see that progress and prosperity today,” he said.
The president added that the urgency of implementation was inseparable from Africa’s migration crisis. “That is why Accra Reset needs that urgency to stop our young people from braving the dangers of the Sahara and the Mediterranean as they try to reach Europe in search of opportunity,” he said.
Mahama acknowledged that African leaders have long reached agreements without following through. “We come with the decisions. We agree. We do the frameworks. What is missing is urgency and implementation,” he said, calling on nations ready to act to move forward as a bloc rather than wait for full continental consensus.
“If parts of the continent are not ready, let’s form a coalition of the willing to move this as quickly as possible. And let all the others follow and join.”
The Accra Reset initiative, launched in January 2026 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, has drawn backing from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as Global South partners including Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Barbados.
The Addis Ababa gathering was attended by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretary General Wamkele Mene, among other senior figures.
On the sidelines of the same summit, Mahama was elected First Vice Chairperson of the African Union.
“From Addis, we must stop talking and start implementing,” the President concluded.
