Ghana and Ivory Coast seek $1.2b financing from AfDB for cocoa sectors

Ghana and her western neighbour Ivory Coast are jointly seeking financing of $1.2 billion from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to invest in their cocoa sectors. This was made known by Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of the AfDB during a visit to Accra.

The two countries are the largest producers of cocoa in the world, but make less than two per cent of the $100 billion annual revenue of the global chocolate industry.

The countries have been working together towards rationalizing cocoa prices.

“We (AfDB) have received a request for $1.2 billion from Ghana’s Minister of Agriculture and from the Cocoa and Coffee Board of Cote d’Ivoire, and we will be looking at building warehouses so you can store the cocoa and not have to sell immediately after harvest,” Dr. Adesina was quoted as saying.

Ghana and Ivory Coast account for more than 60 per cent of the global share, but cocoa price volatility has been unfavourable to the two West African neighbours.

In the 2015/2016 production year, Ivory Coast produced a total of 1.7 million metric tonnes of cocoa and Ghana produced some 840,000 tonnes. Ghana is targeting one million metric tonnes for the 2016/2017 production year.

The countries have met on Wednesday April 12, 2017 and agreed to do something about cocoa price volatility. During the Cocoa and Coffee Council meeting in Abidjan, they agreed to deepen collaboration and coordinate their production strategies in order to tackle price volatility.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi