The Minority in Parliament has urged the government and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to immediately settle payments owed to cocoa farmers for beans already sold, warning that continued delays could push the sector back into a period of low morale and declining interest.
The caucus also called for an apology from both the government and COCOBOD over the delayed payments, which it described as “gross dereliction of duty”.
In addition, it asked COCOBOD to reimburse Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) the GH¢10 billion outstanding for cocoa purchases and deliveries, and to ensure prompt settlement of future deliveries to prevent a repeat of the situation.
“We demand that our cherished cocoa farmers are treated better and with dignity than we are seeing now,” it said.
Speaking for the Minority Caucus, the Ranking Member on the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku, said “cocoa farmers are not beggars and paying them promptly is not a favour but it is an obligation”.
The call comes ahead of a meeting of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee to address concerns about late payments to farmers.
Dr Opoku, who is also the New Patriotic Party MP for Offinso South, said the caucus was deeply worried about the fragile state of the cocoa industry.
He explained that since November 2025, LBCs had been unable to pay farmers for cocoa sold to them. However, he noted that the companies should not be blamed because funds they used to purchase and deliver cocoa to COCOBOD had not been reimbursed.
As a result, the LBCs have halted further financial commitments in the field, leaving farmers to sell on credit, accept discounted prices, or return home with unsold produce.
“The situation portends dire consequences for our cocoa industry and the national economy, knowing what cocoa stands for in Ghana. “COCOBOD and the government must be blamed for failing to reimburse the various cocoa buying companies for purchases already delivered to COCOBOD,” he said.
Dr Opoku added that the companies had borrowed from banks and off-taker traders to finance the harvest, but COCOBOD now owed them more than GH¢10 billion in defaulted receipts for cocoa already taken over.
He warned that continuing under the same conditions would only increase the cocoa taken-over receipts (CTORs) and COCOBOD’s mounting debt to the LBCs.
He also referred to a recent statement by COCOBOD’s Public Affairs Department suggesting adequate funds had been released to LBCs to purchase cocoa, insisting “but that was a hoax”.
“The reality is that farmers are not being paid for their cocoa sold to the Mahama-led NDC government since November last year.”
“For farmers who rely on cocoa as the sole source of livelihood, the past three months have been very trying moments,” he said.
He noted that farmers, through no fault of theirs, had been left stranded.
“Having been deprived of their hard-earned income from the sale of cocoa for more than three months, some suffering farmers have been forced to sell their stocks at heavy discounts, plunging them into severe hardships.
Dr Opoku said farmers had endured harsh weather, spent significant resources on pest and disease control, harvested their produce and sold it to the government in good faith — yet they were still unpaid months later. He questioned whether such actions formed part of “resetting or reversing of the cocoa industry”.
He further argued that the delayed payments were severely affecting livelihoods.
He described the non-payment as a serious injustice that had left some farmers struggling to feed their families and others unable to reinvest in their farms, threatening the sustainability of the cocoa sector.
“This was the least treatment our cherished cocoa farmers ever expected from President Mahama and his NDC government.
