A distraught cocoa purchasing clerk has raised concerns over prolonged payment delays to cocoa farmers, describing the situation as unprecedented in his 20 years of work.

According to the clerk, who purchased cocoa beans on behalf of Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), the farmers have become distressed due to months of unpaid arrears.

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“From November till now, I can’t sleep. I have taken about 250 bags of cocoa from farmers, and they are always at my doorstep demanding their money. In my 20 years as a purchasing clerk, I have never seen a situation where cocoa is bought and the government cannot pay,” he said at a recent People’s Forum in Abuakwa South.

His comments come amid growing warnings from the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana (LICOBAG) over what it describes as a looming collapse of the cocoa sector.

According to the LICOBAG President, Samuel Adimado severe funding and liquidity challenges facing the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) have led to significant delays in payments to LBCs, directly affecting cocoa farmers nationwide.

He disclosed that government must urgently secure funding to pay for an estimated 300,000 metric tonnes of cocoa between now and September.

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“Wherever COCOBOD can get the money, they should try and get it so we can pay our members, and our members can also pay the farmers,” he stated.

He explained that many LBCs have been forced to pre-finance cocoa purchases using local bank loans with interest rates as high as 29.8 percent due to delayed payments.

According to him, the traditional syndicated funding model has failed, making it necessary to adopt a hybrid funding approach to prevent further payment delays to farmers.

He appealed to COCOBOD to settle outstanding payments for cocoa beans already supplied warning that continued delays could worsen the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Randy Abbey, has acknowledged a major disruption in the cocoa market.

Addressing a press conference at Cocoa House in Accra on Friday February 6, 2026. he disclosed that while COCOBOD has sold more than 530,000 tonnes of cocoa for the current season, about 50,000 tonnes remain with farmers without buyers, a situation he attributed directly to Ghana’s non-competitive farmgate price.

“The situation is where we have beans but they are not buying; the beans are too expensive,” he said.

He gave the assurance that efforts are underway to address the delayed payments.

See the video below:

“From November till now, I can’t sleep. I’ve taken 250 cocoa bags from you (Kingsley Agyeman, Abuakwa South MP). The farmers are at my doorstep every time. I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a purchasing clerk — where we buy cocoa and the government can’t pay.… pic.twitter.com/NJmm0KFPq5

— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) February 8, 2026