BY Daniel Bampoe
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has officially suspended its nationwide cocoa road projects, citing unsustainable financial obligations stemming from contracts worth approximately GH₵26 billion.
The decision, announced by COCOBOD CEO Randy Abbey, highlights the mounting fiscal pressures facing the board due to prior contract commitments awarded without approved budget allocations.
Speaking on Friday, December 19, 2025, during an engagement with the Cocoa, Coffee, and Shea Nut Association and the 2025 National Cocoa Award winners, Abbey outlined the scale of the problem.
According to the CEO, the board signed road contracts totaling GH₵26 billion, including major awards in 2018 and 2019, when there was no allocations for road projects.
“COCOBOD went ahead to award contracts amounting to GH₵220 million and $99 million despite the absence of budgetary provision,” Randy Abbey explained.
The financial strain worsened in the 2019–2020 period, with additional contracts valued at GH₵231 million and $1.157 billion approved under similar conditions, again without formal allocations.
Over just three years, the board awarded road contracts amounting to nearly GH₵21.5 billion, a figure far exceeding COCOBOD’s revenue capacity.
“The question is: how were these contracts going to be paid for based on COCOBOD’s revenue? This is the problem,” the CEO noted, emphasizing the board’s limited fiscal bandwidth.
The accumulation of unfunded contracts has contributed to significant financial pressure, including losses from rollover arrangements and a mounting debt stock estimated at GH₵33 billion.
Abbey stressed that the government’s directive to suspend cocoa road projects is a necessary step to stabilize the board’s finances.
He further underscored that redirecting cocoa revenues toward these unfunded projects would have strained resources that could otherwise be invested directly into improving infrastructure in cocoa-growing communities.
“How do you award contracts when there is no allocation? This is why government has asked COCOBOD not to embark on road projects,” Abbey said.
