Cocoa Bills: COCOBOD to settle outstanding payments to investors in coming weeks – BoG Governor

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, has disclosed that outstanding payments owed to investors of cocoa bills will be made in the coming weeks.

Making the disclosure during the 117th MPC press briefing on Monday, March 2024, the Governor assured investors of COCOBOD’s readiness to settle the outstanding payments.

“Regarding the sale of cocoa bills to individuals, I did assure that we would look at it because individuals were not to have been sold cocoa bills in the first place.

“It was an unfortunate outcome. Since then, I am aware that the COCOBOD has settled quite a number of individual cocoa bill holders. But I am also aware that it’s not completed yet and that there are a few outstanding ones as well.

“COCOBOD has assured us that they will be addressing that within the next few weeks. So be rest assured that, that issue has been taken care of,” he quipped.

The government, along with several banks in the country, agreed to restructure cocoa bills worth GHS 8.1 billion.

The restructuring was part of the government’s broader domestic debt restructuring program (DDEP), which aimed to restructure a total domestic debt of GHS 123 billion.

The successful restructuring of the debt was crucial for Ghana to access the second installment of $600 million under the IMF’s $3 billion balance of payment support as part of the country’s bailout program.