Johnson Asiedu Nketia, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has launched a scathing attack on the previous Npp Akufo Addo administration, blaming what he describes as severe financial mismanagement for the ongoing crisis in Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Speaking during his “Thank You” tour in the Upper Denkyira West Constituency of the Central Region, Asiedu Nketia alleged that the former government secured a massive loan to purchase 800,000 tonnes of cocoa for the 2023/2024 crop season but procured barely half that quantity while exhausting the full loan amount.
According to him, when it became time to repay the loan, the administration was unable to meet its obligations because it had not purchased enough cocoa to generate the necessary revenue. He claimed the government was forced to request a rescheduling of repayment to 2025, raising concerns about Ghana’s financial credibility in international commodity markets.
The NDC Chairman further alleged that the former administration compounded the crisis by issuing cocoa bonds to domestic banks, only to later declare it could not honour repayment commitments following the controversial domestic debt restructuring programme.
“When we took over and conducted our audit, we realised the extent of the mess left behind,” he stated, suggesting that the cocoa financing structure had been severely compromised.
The allegations paint a grim picture of a sector that has long been the backbone of Ghana’s economy, with stakeholders now questioning how such a significant financial gap could occur without accountability.
