As Ghana’s cocoa sector grapples with one of its most challenging periods in years, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) says it has stepped in to plug a critical financing gap threatening the cocoa supply chain, injecting hundreds of millions of dollars to keep licensed buying companies and farmers afloat.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, IFC Senior Country Manager Kyle Kelhofer revealed that delays in COCOBOD’s expected financing transactions had left licensed buying companies (LBCs) under pressure, forcing them to self-finance operations in an already strained market.
“Well, the big thing that we’ve been trying to support over the last 18 months, because there’s been a bit of a financing gap with the cocoa board…and the LBC supply chain has had to self-finance,” Kelhofer said.
Ghana, the world’s second-largest producer of cocoa beans, relies heavily on a tightly linked financing structure to move cocoa from farm gates to export markets. However, disruptions to that flow, combined with production challenges, have heightened liquidity stress across the value chain.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com
