The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has attributed the ongoing crisis in Ghana’s cocoa sector to financial mismanagement under the previous administration.

Speaking during his “Thank You” tour in the Upper Denkyira West Constituency of the Central Region, Asiedu Nketiah told party supporters and traditional leaders that although the former government secured a loan to purchase 800,000 tonnes of cocoa for the 2023/2024 crop season, it procured only slightly over 400,000 tonnes while utilising the full loan amount.

“When it was time for the government to pay the loan they took for the cocoa, they didn’t get the quantity that was required to pay the banks. They then later pleaded for the loan payment to be rescheduled to 2025,” he stated.

He further alleged that the administration relied on cocoa bonds to raise additional funds from domestic banks but later failed to honour its repayment obligations.

“They used the same cocoa bond to collect lots of money from the domestic banks. As a result of the haircut, the same government announced it could not pay the banks. So, when we took over and conducted our audit, we realised that this was the mess that was left behind,” he said.

According to him, other procurement decisions compounded the situation, including the importation of large quantities of jute sacks for cocoa packaging.

“As if that is not enough, the sack for packing cocoa is imported. They used that as a medium to make money and awarded many contracts to their members.

"When we came in, we realised they had imported so many sacks that we can go for 10 years without importing any more. As I speak to you, COCOBOD has lots of sacks at the port that cannot be cleared,” he added.

Despite the challenges, Asiedu Nketiah assured that the NDC government is taking pragmatic steps to stabilise the sector and restore confidence in cocoa financing.

“We are putting in place measures to clean up the system and ensure transparency and sustainability in cocoa financing going forward,” he assured.

Meanwhile, the Nifahene of New Obuasi, Nana Kofi Arkoh, appealed to the NDC Chairman to draw government attention to the stalled Ayanfuri–Dunkwa road project.

“We believe you are a man of your word. We are pleading with you to help ensure that work resumes on the Ayanfuri–Dunkwa road to ease the burden on our people,” the chief urged.