Ghana Cocoa Board is raising cocoa-season money from Ghanaian investors through Cocoa Capital PLC, a wholly owned subsidiary seeking up to GH¢16.3 billion under a new Domestic Cocoa Notes Programme.
A 25 September COCOBOD release, matched by the Ministry of Finance, splits that ceiling in two. About GH¢14 billion is to be issued as commercial paper to fund cocoa purchases in the 2026/27 season. The remaining GH¢2.3 billion is to come from longer bonds to refinance existing COCOBOD debt.
Cocoa Capital has Securities and Exchange Commission approval to raise the money on the domestic debt market. Repayment is to be supported by receivables from selected cocoa forward-sale contracts assigned to the company, with the proceeds held in ring-fenced accounts.
First commercial paper leaves the amount open
The first instrument is 270-day senior unsecured commercial paper, to be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and repaid in a single amount in June 2027. The Finance Ministry’s issuance announcement leaves the size of that issue to be set in the bookbuild.
Proceeds may be used to buy cocoa and to repay a bridge facility linked to existing COCOBOD debt. The minimum bid is GH¢50,000. The notes are being offered to banks, pension funds, insurers, stockbrokers, other institutional investors, international cocoa buyers and high-net-worth individuals.
The announcement scheduled the book to open on 28 September and to close on 30 September, with settlement on 1 October. No allotted amount or clearing yield has been published.
Bookrunners are Absa Bank Ghana, Cal Bank, Fincap Securities, GCB Bank, One Africa Securities and Stanbic Bank Ghana.
The commercial paper is to be issued in further tranches as purchase-funding needs and market conditions allow. Those later amounts have not been set.
The old offshore model had already broken down
For years COCOBOD raised hard currency before the main crop through annual syndicated loans from international banks. Reuters reported that that arrangement broke down in the 2023/24 season, and that a later model in which trading houses pre-financed purchases also failed last season.
The financing strain has carried into this season. Licensed buying companies have said unpaid balances from the last crop made it harder to raise money to buy beans, while COCOBOD has acknowledged outstanding obligations without confirming the buyers’ figure. Akan Reports reported that dispute when the Chamber of Cocoa Marketers Ghana put the unpaid amount at nearly GH¢4 billion.
The GH¢16.3 billion programme is a fundraising ceiling, not money already in COCOBOD’s hands. The first commercial-paper issue was due to settle on 1 October; the amount raised and the clearing yield have not been published.