Institutional Investors Agree To Roll Over Maturing Cocoa Bills

Institutional investors have agreed to roll over their maturing cocoa bills investments, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced.

This comes after a reissued six-month cocoa bill was woefully undersubscribed last week.

Cocobod bills are issued to support the purchase of cocoa during the crop season.

“On Thursday, 19th January 2023, a six-month Cocoa bill with face value of GH¢940.42 million matured. Bank of Ghana(BOG) went through the usual processes to reissue on behalf of Cocobod a new six-month Cocoa bill to raise funds to cover the maturing obligation, but unfortunately, the auction failed and was severely undersubscribed resulting in a shortfall of GH¢ 855.42million”, a statement from the Bank said.

Stakeholders during a meeting last week agreed to roll over their maturing cocoa bill.

“At a meeting held on Friday, 20th January 2023 among the banks, Cocobod and Bank of Ghana, it was agreed that all institutional investors will roll over their maturing cocoa bill for Tender 6155. Financial Institutions have agreed to roll over their cocoa bills investments.”

It explained that cocoa bills, like the Bank of Ghana bills, were designed as instruments to be held just by Financial Institutions, however, some Financial Institutions sold their instruments to their retail clients.

In dealing with this in the face of the agreement, the BoG said banks will be allowed to use Cocobod’s deposits held at the various banks to cater for retail customers who may not want a rollover of their cocoa bills.

It continued, “Cocobod has assured us that the outlook for the 2023 crop season is good, and Cocoa purchasing are ahead of last year. We therefore expect that this shortterm cash flow challenges facing Cocoa Board will be resolved soon to enable Cocobod meet its obligations to investors”.

The rolled-over bills will mature on July 20, 2023.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini