Parliament yesterday approved $1.3 billion loan facility from a consortium of banks and financial institutions for the purchase of cocoa beans by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) for the 2018/2019 crop season.
Parliament also approved a waiver and stamp duty amounting to $6.5 million on the receivables-backed trade finance between COCOBOD and the consortium of the financial institutions.
However, the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) raised concerns about the waiver for COCOBOD.
The MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, said that public corporations, which run on market-oriented principles like COCOBOD, should not be given such waivers because the state does not benefit from them.
Presenting the Finance Committee’s report on the loan before the approval, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah said the loan would be used to buy cocoa beans and pay for other liabilities of COCOBOD.
He said COCOBOD would not reduce the farmer price of cocoa despite the fall in the price of cocoa on the world market.
“The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD informed the committee that in the 2017/2018 crop season, COCOBOD must borrow GH¢2.7 billion to support its finances.
He said the borrowing became necessary because of the decline in the world price of cocoa, as well as existing legacy debts.
The NDC MP for Bia East, Richard Acheampong said that COCOBOD officials could not explain exactly what an amount of GH¢382.7 million was used for during the 2017/2018 crop season.
He said the officials only said they used that money for operational expenses.
Mr Acheampong, therefore, called on Parliament to impress on COCOBOD to furnish the House with details.
He said that it was unfortunate for the present NPP administration to suspend the construction of all cocoa roads, stressing that people in his constituency in the Western Region, which is a cocoa growing, are really suffering because of the suspension of cocoa roads in the constituency.
The NPP MP for Oda, William Agyapong Quaittoo, said that the previous NDC administration awarded contracts to construct cocoa roads to the tune of $450 million in 2016 even though COCOBOD officially budgeted $150 million for such cocoa roads.
This, according to him, resulted in arrears of $300 million in the cocoa road sector which the present administration is struggling to settle.
He said the waiver was very important because COCOBOD still incurs losses and that a deficit of GH¢1.4 billion has been accrued in the 2017/2018 crop season by COCOBOD.
The NPP MP for Nsuta-Kwaman-Beposo, Kwame Asafu-Adjei, said that the waiver was very important because COCOBOD provides certain services to he