Acting CEO of Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), Dr. Ransford Anertey Abbey, has revealed staggering levels of debt that continue to haunt the institution.

He admitted that Cocobod’s total liabilities are hovering around GH¢33 billion, with no immediate prospects of financial recovery.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, June 5, Dr. Abbey was not shy to describe the dire situation facing the cocoa sector’s key regulatory body.

“The last time I checked, that debt was close to GH¢33 billion,” he disclosed. “I have to redo it now, because the dollar components might go down as a result of the performance or the strength of the cedi now. But that is the situation.”

He noted that Cocobod is under immense pressure from suppliers, contractors, and banks, many of whom are owed money dating back several years.

“We owe agrochemical suppliers over $400 million,” he revealed. “I’m sure that when you got here, you waited for about an hour. All those you saw leaving my office were companies that we owed. And the banks are chasing them. And they have also come here to chase us.”

Dr. Abbey emphasised that Cocobod is buried in constant legal and financial battles.

“Every day, I’m dealing with either solicitor letters or court issues. And it’s about people that we owe,” he said. “We’ve owed people for four years, for three years, for two years, for a year.”

He clarified that, contrary to public perception, the controversial Cocoa Roads Programme is not the major contributor to the debt figure.

“Anytime we mention the Cocoa Roads’ GH¢21 billion, people assume that the GH¢21 billion is part of the about GH¢33 billion. No, it is not,” he explained. “

It is only GH¢4.4 billion, which are certificates raised and sitting at our cash office. The others have to do with the contracts that have been given, but they’ve not raised certificates or executed them.”

He added that Cocobod is now engaged in a rationalisation exercise to determine “which of them we can cancel, which of them can be offloaded to the ministry, and which of them can be varied.”

Dr. Abbey cited what he described as financial recklessness, particularly in the procurement of jute sacks. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the jute sacks,” he said.

“They [previous administration] issued an irrevocable letter of credit, $48 million in December 2024, when the paper documents show that they had imported jute sacks and over 110,000 have not been cleared over three years. Yet they still decided to award a contract for 80,000 bales of jute sacks valued at $48 million.”

He added that these new jute sacks have begun arriving.

“Once the bill of ladings are presented to us and given to the bank, by the structure of the irrevocable LC, the $48 million will be given to the company. That is how this place was run.”

When host George Wiafe asked whether Cocobod was anywhere close to balancing its books, Dr. Abbey admitted the road ahead remains tough.

“Our first task was to look at how we’re going to deal with it, and the projections we made was that by year four, we should be fine,” he said. “Now we have to redo the books in view of the cedi appreciation.”