Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has raised $1.3 billion pre-export finance facility to help the organisation purchase cocoa for the 2020/21 season.  The facility was priced at an interest rate of one month LIBOR plus 1.75%. Last month, a legislative report indicated that the transaction charges were an upfront flat fee of 1.25% and a commitment fee of 0.62%.

The money was raised from a syndication of 4 local and 24 global banks including ABN Amro, Bank of China, Cooperative Rabobank, Natixis, Ghana International bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered Bank and MUFG Bank among others. The local banks that participated in the syndication were Societe Generale Ghana, Ecobank Ghana, ABSA Ghana and Stanbic Bank Ghana.

The funds are expected to be released to COCOBOD starting from October 10, 2020 to enable the organisation to start buying cocoa for the 2020/21 season in which they expect to buy about 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa.