{"id":15817,"date":"2026-02-19T21:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=15817"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:49:16","slug":"majority-rejects-bailout-for-cocoa-farmers-amid-ghc60bn-cocobod-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=15817","title":{"rendered":"Majority rejects bailout for cocoa farmers amid GHC60bn COCOBOD debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Majority Caucus in Parliament<\/span><\/span>\u00a0has rejected calls for a bailout for cocoa farmers, attributing the current crisis in Ghana\u2019s cocoa sector to reckless borrowing under the former\u00a0Nana Akufo-Addo administration<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, February 19, 2026, Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee,\u00a0Isaac Adongo<\/span><\/span>, accused the previous government of leaving the\u00a0Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in deep financial distress, warning that additional debt-driven interventions could jeopardise the sector\u2019s long-term viability.<\/p>\n

This is in response to the Minority\u2019s call for a bailout for cocoa farmers, urging government to cushion farmers against falling international cocoa prices rather than implementing a sharp 28 per cent cut in the producer price. The Minority has proposed that the government release emergency liquidity support to COCOBOD, enabling the country\u2019s nearly one million cocoa farmers to be paid promptly instead of seeing the price of cocoa fall by over GH\u00a21,000 per bag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Bolga Central lawmaker argued that Ghana\u2019s current debt burden makes it impossible to secure additional funds from international capital markets to fund a bailout for cocoa farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoans alone were GHC17.8 billion at the beginning of 2025. And if you add this to other obligations, you will realise that at this point, COCOBOD was bleeding with an exposure of over GHC60 billion. Certainly, that vehicle could not be sustainable and needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the people who read the Bible in reverse. And these are the people advising us to add debts when we cannot even pay GHC60 billion. They think this illogical argument they are advancing will save the people of Ghana. We\u2019re resetting the cocoa sector,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Majority caucus stressed that restoring financial discipline and restructuring the cocoa sector is a far more sustainable solution than relying on short-term, debt-fuelled handouts.<\/p>\n

Adongo emphasised the need for systemic reforms that strengthen COCOBOD\u2019s financial footing while safeguarding farmers\u2019 livelihoods.<\/p>\n

The government has outlined a series of measures to revitalise the cocoa sector, including financial reforms, debt restructuring, and targeted support for farmers, signalling a move away from quick-fix interventions towards long-term sustainability in Ghana\u2019s flagship agricultural industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Majority Caucus in Parliament\u00a0has rejected calls for a bailout for cocoa farmers, attributing the current crisis in Ghana\u2019s cocoa sector to reckless borrowing under the former\u00a0Nana Akufo-Addo administration. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, February 19, 2026, Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee,\u00a0Isaac Adongo, accused the previous government of leaving the\u00a0Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)\u00a0in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":15818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3788,41,18],"tags":[5002,4586,5003,1085],"class_list":["post-15817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-bailout","tag-cocoa-sector","tag-isaac-adongo","tag-majority-caucus","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15819,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817\/revisions\/15819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}