No international bank has rejected us - COCOBOD

Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has flatly denied claims that it was turned down by international banks in its bid for a $1.5 billion loan for the 2024/2025 cocoa planting season. 

This comes after Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson claimed that the loan request did not garner interest from international banks due to COCOBOD's poor financial condition and the sector's downturn under its current management.

However, in a statement released on Friday, August 22, COCOBOD disputed that syndicated banks had submitted term sheets in response to its earlier Request for Proposals (RFP) for consideration, labeling the Minority's assertion as "false".

COCOBOD noted that these transactions necessitated negotiations with financial institutions, stressing that nothing suggests a lack of faith in the company's creditworthiness.

COCOBOD criticized the Minority for issuing a press statement that had multiple "falsehoods, inaccuracies, and misrepresentations" about the current state of the cocoa sector.

The board explicitly refuted the Minority's accusation that its decision to find funds locally is a 'face-saving' attempt to disguise its financial woes, calling the assertion "categorically false."

“The assertion by the Minority Caucus that the International Banks have rejected the Ghana Cocoa Board’s request and that COCOBOD was ‘chased away’ from the market is false. This is so because syndicated banks submitted term sheets in response to COCOBOD’s earlier Request for Proposals (RFP) for consideration.

“Indeed, notwithstanding our intentions to wean off syndicated transactions, we still have committed contracts that need to be fulfilled through the syndicated process.

These transactions have necessitated a discussion with financial institutions, and nothing in this process indicates, to us, a lack of confidence in COCOBOD’s creditworthiness from these financial institutions," the statement read.

Source: Lead News Online