Finance Minister: COCOBOD Procured $455.7m Agrochemicals Against $312.8m Budget, Leaving Suppliers Unpaid

Hon. Isaac Yaw Opoku

Member of Parliament for Offinso South, has pressed the Minister for Finance to clarify government’s plans to settle debts owed to input suppliers who provided agrochemicals and fertilizers to the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The question was posed on the floor of the House, seeking an update on payments to suppliers who supported COCOBOD’s Cocoa Mass Spraying and Hi-Tech programs between 2021 and 2024.

“Speaker, I rise to ask the Minister for Finance what steps the Ministry is taking to pay input suppliers who supplied agrochemicals and fertilizers to Cocoa Board for the Cocoa Mass Spraying and Hi-Tech programs between twenty twenty-one and twenty twenty-four,” the Ranking Member of Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee stated.

The Ministry of Finance has distanced itself from debts owed to suppliers of agrochemicals and fertilizers for COCOBOD’s Mass Spraying and Hi-Tech programs, blaming “mismanagement” by the previous Cocoa Board administration.

Responding to a question in Parliament by The Ranking Member of Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, the Deputy Minister of Finance Hon. Thomas Nyarko Ampem said COCOBOD procured “excessive quantities of fertilizers and agrochemicals beyond its financial capacity” between 2021 and 2024, making it impossible to pay suppliers.

“The Ministry of Finance is not responsible for the payment of input suppliers who supplied agrochemicals and fertilizers to COCOBOD,” the Minister told the House.

For the 2021/2022 crop year, he said COCOBOD procured agrochemicals worth $455.7 million, although only $312.8 million was provisioned in its budget. The inputs for that season were not paid for, he added.

Yet, COCOBOD “continued to procure additional quantities in 2022/2023 and 2024, all of which were above the budgeted amount in each year.”

In the 2023/2024 season, while $76.5 million was budgeted, COCOBOD contracted about $668.6 million in agrochemicals, according to the Minister.

“Ironically, while procurement of fertilizers and agrochemicals was increasing, cocoa production was declining, raising questions as to what these fertilizers and agrochemicals were used for,” he said.

The Minister noted that COCOBOD’s indebtedness to fertilizer and agrochemical suppliers between 2021 and 2024 is “part of a much larger financial challenge inherited in the cocoa sector.”