By Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Abbey, has assured cocoa farmers that despite current operational and financial challenges, there remains hope for Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Dr. Abbey gave the assurance when he engaged the 2025 National Award-winning cocoa and coffee farmers and executives of the Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (COCOSHE), who paid a courtesy call on him in Accra.
According to the COCOBOD CEO, the Board remains committed to improving farmer welfare and sustaining Ghana’s reputation as a global producer of premium-quality cocoa. He acknowledged concerns raised by the farmers regarding challenges affecting production and pledged continued engagement to address them.
Dr. Abbey also used the interaction to explain COCOBOD’s decision to suspend cocoa road projects nationwide, describing the move as a necessary step to stabilise the Board’s finances.
Speaking on Friday, December 19, 2025, he revealed that COCOBOD is currently saddled with road contracts valued at about GH₵26 billion, many of which were awarded without approved budgetary allocations. He explained that between 2018 and 2019, no allocation was made by the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC) for cocoa roads, yet contracts worth GH₵220 million and US$99 million were awarded. The situation, he said, worsened between 2019 and 2020, when additional contracts valued at GH₵231 million and US$1.157 billion were approved without funding.
“In less than three years, road contracts worth about GH₵21.5 billion were awarded. The key question is how these contracts were going to be financed from COCOBOD’s revenue,” Dr. Abbey stated.
He noted that the accumulation of unfunded contracts has placed severe strain on COCOBOD’s finances, contributing to rollover losses and a growing debt stock estimated at GH₵33 billion. As a result, the government directed the suspension of further cocoa road projects. Dr. Abbey stressed that cocoa revenues would have been better deployed to directly improve infrastructure in cocoa-growing communities, rather than creating unsustainable liabilities.
He reaffirmed COCOBOD’s commitment to restoring financial stability, prioritising farmer support, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of Ghana’s cocoa sector.
