info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Photo from News Ghana
It is reported that a group of international banks invested Ghana 1.3 billion US dollars for buying of cocoa beans in the next crop season.
The deal for the syndicated facility was signed on Thursday in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where 21 banks including Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and many others agreed to grant the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) the facility with an interest rate of 0.6 percent above the London Inter-Bank Offering Rate (LIBOR).
"By appending your signatures to this facility, you are not only sealing the deal but you are also indicating your confidence in the whole industry and by extension the entire country of Ghana," Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana COCOBOD, told the lenders at the signing ceremony.
Ghana expects to produce 900,000 metric tons of coca in the coming season after exceeding that mark last year.
Proceeds of the annual syndicated cocoa loan has been one of the major sources of support to cushion the local cedi currency.
The CEO however indicated that the country was also negotiating another medium to long-term facility of about 300 million dollars to finance operations in the sector including farm rehabilitation, dealing with the cocoa swollen shoot disease and irrigation of farms, expanding warehouses, and constructing roads in cocoa growing areas.
