With Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) just a few weeks away from commencing its planned US$1 billion-equivalent domestic commercial-paper programme – scheduled for later this month ahead of the start of the 2026/7 crop season – the country’s cocoa industry facilitator and regulator is deliberately, but subtly,wooing potential investors with the release of financial performance and standing data that seeks to attract portfolio investors.

The latest data sets stand to reverse the series of negative publicity on the Board’s finances that captured news headlines for much of the past one and a half years.

Indeed, financial reports released over the past fortnight suggesta substantially stronger standing than it could have presented even a year ago. The combination of a return to profitability in 2025, a significant reduction in debt, restoration of positive equity and the settlement of outstanding obligations to investors is beginning to rebuild the institution’s credibility in Ghana’s capital market ahead of its forthcoming watershed commercial paper issuance.

COCOBOD is slated to replace its traditional offshore syndicated-loan model with a locally funded commercial-paper programme to finance purchases for the 2026/27 cocoa season. The programme is intended to provide working capital for cocoa purchases while reducing COCOBOD’s dependence on foreign-currency borrowing.

Under the model announced in June, the programme will be issued as 270 day debt in three tranches: the first covering up to two months of purchases, the second an additional three months and the final tranche financing the remainder of the season.

Proceeds from cocoa sales are to flow through a dedicated escrow account from which investors will be repaid. The facility is intended to operate over the cocoa purchasing cycle and be retired before the next season’s programme is issued.

But first the Board is seeking to assure investors that its immediate future will be better than its immediate past. As recently as February 2026, COCOBOD had acknowledged that its finances had deteriorated to the point where it lacked the liquidity needed to purchase cocoa, while the traditional syndicated-financing model had already experienced serious disruption.

The most powerful improvement in the investment case is the financial turnaround recorded in 2025. According to management accounts submitted to the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), COCOBOD generated operating revenue of GH¢48.62 billion in 2025, up a remarkable 207.7% from GH¢15.80 billion in 2024.

It moved from a net loss of GH¢5.73 billion in 2024 to a net profit of GH¢5.11 billion in 2025, these figures representing the absolute profit remaining after subtracting all financial burdens, including interest, administrative overheads, and other non-operating deductions from the total income. Similarly its operating result – reflecting earnings from its core business activities – similarly swung from a GH¢4.07 billion loss to a GH¢6.17 billion profit.

The improvement was supported by a 33% increase in cocoa purchases, from 448,969 tonnes in 2024 to 597,377 tonnes in 2025. Cocoa-bean export revenue almost tripled, rising 194.2% from GH¢12.14 billion to GH¢35.70 billion, while domestic cocoa sales increased 252.3%, from GH¢3.67 billion to GH¢12.92 billion.

For portfolio investors, however, profitability is only part of the story. Perhaps more important is what happened to the balance sheet.

COCOBOD’s total equity moved from a negative GH¢3.65 billion in 2024 to positive equity of GH¢1.48 billion in 2025 — a turnaround of about GH¢5.13 billion. At the same time, interest-bearing debt fell by GH¢2.93 billion, or 19.2%, from GH¢15.23 billion to GH¢12.30 billion. Total liabilities declined 12.7%, from GH¢32.67 billion to GH¢28.52 billion. Consequently, the debt-to-assets ratio improved from 1.13 times to 0.95 times.

The improvement in debt-service capacity is particularly relevant for prospective commercial-paper investors. COCOBOD’s interest-cover ratio improved from a deeplynegative 2.16 times in 2024 to 5.05 times in 2025. Its cost-recovery ratio also increased from 89.3% to 112.5%. These indicators suggest that the Board was generating sufficient operating income to cover its costs and finance charges in 2025.

Nevertheless, investors will not overlook COCOBOD’s liquidity constraints. Its current ratio improved from 0.72 times to 0.80 times, while cash and cash equivalents increased 69.8% to GH¢1.11 billion. Yet the ratio remains below one, meaning short-term liabilities still exceeded current assets at the end of 2025.

The Board has also been actively repairing its relationship with investors whose funds were caught up in the 2023 restructuring. The second phase of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme included COCOBOD’s cocoa bills alongside domestic dollar-denominated debt and pension liabilities. In 2023, approximately GH¢7.93 billion of short-term Cocoa Bills were restructured into longer-term instruments.

COCOBOD has subsequently demonstrated a willingness to honour those restructured obligations. In March 2026 it paid GH¢376.3 million in coupons to DDEP-affected bondholders. On September 1, 2026, it made a further payment of GH¢2.306 billion, bringing total payments to DDEP bondholders during 2026 to GH¢2.683 billion and completing its mandatory obligations for the year.

Even investors who did not participate in the DDEP have now been dealt with. On July 15, 2026, COCOBOD paid GH¢162 million to individual Cocoa Bill holders who had opted out of the restructuring, bringing those outstanding obligations to an end.

COCOBOD can now point to a GH¢5.1 billion profit, positive equity, a GH¢2.93 billion reduction in interest-bearing debt and more than GH¢2.68 billion paid to DDEP bondholders in 2026, alongside the GH¢162 million settlement of non-DDEP Cocoa Bills.

But there are still substantial risks. COCOBOD remains highly leveraged, its liquidity ratio remains below one and cocoa prices, production volumes, exchange rates and the ability to sell accumulated beans at profitable prices will determine its cash-generation capacity. Moreover, Reuters reported in February that licensed cocoa buyers owed Ghanaian banks an estimated GH¢7 billion–GH¢8 billion, underscoring the wider liquidity pressures still present in the cocoa value chain.

Nevertheless, if the programme is successfully subscribed at competitive pricing, it could become one of the clearest market validations yet that COCOBOD’s financial rehabilitation is moving from balance-sheet repair to genuine capital-market credibility.