By Amoako Kwame
The Member of Parliament, Kwabena Donkor, has criticised the relevance of the Ghana Cocoa Board in the modern cocoa economy.
Speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show on February 24, 2026, the legislator said the role COCOBOD plays in the cocoa sector reflects poor corporate governance.
“COCOBOD is the best example of an organisation that has outlived its usefulness. We have kept COCOBOD for over fifty years in its present form. COCOBOD is one organisation that is both a regulator and a player. That is absolutely the worst example of good corporate governance,” he stated.
He further compared Ghana to neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire in explaining the reasons behind the upward trajectory of its cocoa economy.
“By the way, our sister country Côte d’Ivoire had a similar organisation in the 1990s but restructured it. Their equivalent of a cocoa board is now a regulator that performs regulatory work. That is the reason they have surpassed us in terms of productivity,” he added.
COCOBOD has faced significant economic challenges in recent times. At the centre of the problem is how the institution finances cocoa purchases and manages price risk. Each season, it relies heavily on syndicated loans backed by forward sales of cocoa.
COCOBOD’s debts ultimately sit with the state. When challenges arise, taxpayers bear the burden, as the government has already directed the transfer of more than GH¢4.3 billion in debt to the Ministry of Finance while restructuring about GH¢5.8 billion owed to the Bank of Ghana.
COCOBOD has, however, undertaken various sector reforms aimed at resolving the economic crisis.
