Accra, Ghana – Licensed cocoa buyers in Ghana owe banks up to $750 million as financial pressures intensify across the country’s cocoa sector, raising concerns about broader banking stability amid delayed payments, weak harvests, and falling global prices.
Okay News reports that the disclosure was made by the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana, according to a Reuters report published on Wednesday. Samuel Adimado, president of the association, stated that debts are accumulating because the Ghana Cocoa Board has been spending more on non-core activities like road construction, forcing buyers to take out loans from banks to prefinance bean purchases. Buyers owe banks approximately 7 billion to 8 billion cedis, equivalent to $650 million to $750 million, and an additional 2.2 billion to 2.5 billion cedis to farmers.
Licensed buyers have delivered about 580,000 metric tons of cocoa to Cocobod this season but have yet to be paid. Approximately 70,000 metric tons remain in the fields, and a recently reduced producer price is expected to apply to about 100,000 metric tons. The growing exposure of banks to cocoa sector debts is adding pressure to Ghana’s financial system, with the Ghana Association of Banks confirming that lenders across the cocoa value chain are exposed and noting that some loans have already been restructured.
Ghana’s banks are still recovering from the 2023 Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, which restructured nearly all domestic bonds and weakened capital buffers. Under that programme, Cocobod’s short-term cocoa bills used to finance annual bean purchases were converted into longer-dated bonds with lower coupon rates. Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, has recorded two consecutive poor harvests due to crop disease and adverse weather, while London cocoa futures have fallen to near a three-year low.
Executive management and senior staff of the Ghana Cocoa Board have recently taken salary cuts in response to liquidity challenges, with management taking a 20 percent reduction and senior staff taking a 10 percent cut. The board stated that these measures, including procurement savings and staff rationalisation, are intended to align spending with available revenue for the remainder of the 2025 to 2026 cocoa crop year. Global cocoa prices have experienced sharp volatility, falling by more than 44 percent in 2025 and dropping below $4,000 per metric ton in February 2026. In Nigeria, the fifth-largest cocoa producer, December cocoa exports rose 17 percent year-on-year to 54,790 metric tons, reflecting strong production amid regional oversupply.
