By Ashiadey Dotse
Former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, says Ghana does not need to borrow money from foreign banks to purchase its cocoa, stressing that the Bank of Ghana has the capacity to finance cocoa purchases if the government decides to act.
Speaking in an interview on the GTV Breakfast Show on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Prof. Oquaye said Ghana has treated its cocoa sector badly over the years and must now take bold national decisions to protect the industry.
He indicated that challenges facing the cocoa industry must not be addressed from a political standpoint but must be treated as a national issue.
“I am not being political about this,” he said. “We must look at cocoa as a national issue, not a partisan one.”
Prof. Oquaye noted that China has moved from being the third-largest producer to the second-largest producer of cocoa globally and could soon become number one. He said Ghana knew years ago that other countries were increasing production but failed to act decisively.
He criticised successive governments for not adding value to cocoa and for failing to manufacture basic items such as jute bags used to export cocoa. According to him, Ghana cannot even produce the bags in which its cocoa is exported, even though jute can be grown locally.
He expressed concern that the Ghana Cocoa Board continues to spend large sums of money importing jute bags. He claimed that in some cases, the number of bags imported exceeded the quantity of cocoa produced in certain years.
“This is business as usual for some people,” he said. “It is an abuse of the cocoa industry and an abuse of the people of Ghana.”
On cocoa financing, Prof. Oquaye said there was a time when the Bank of Ghana supported cocoa purchases. However, after 1966, foreign banks such as Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered began pre-financing Ghana’s cocoa purchases.
He argued that Ghana does not need international financial institutions and foreign conglomerates to finance its cocoa sector. He called on the current government to review the system and stop relying on foreign pre-financing arrangements.
“If government truly wants to help Ghana, it must stop the international conglomerates from financing our cocoa,” he stated.
Prof. Oquaye added that all governments since 1966 have played a role in maintaining the current structure and urged leaders to rise above politics and show statesmanship in dealing with the cocoa sector.
