President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana will stop relying on foreign funding to purchase cocoa and will instead mobilise domestic resources to finance the crop, in a move he says will strengthen local processing and support economic growth.
Speaking at the Accra Reset Summit, a high-level side event of the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday, February 14, 2026, President Mahama said the country had the financial capacity to fund its own cocoa purchases without collateralising the beans.
“One of the key decisions we’ve taken is that we’re going to stop foreign funding for the purchase of our cocoa. We’re going to raise domestic funds. We have enough Cedis in Ghana to pay for it; we’re going to raise domestic funds and buy our own cocoa.
“We don’t need to collateralise the beans. You know the interesting fact, we have the capacity to process 100,000 tonnes of those beans in Ghana, but because the beans are collateralised, we cannot even allocate those beans to the local processors. We have to ship all the beans outside,” he said.
The President explained that collateral arrangements tied to external financing had prevented Ghana from allocating sufficient cocoa beans to domestic processors, despite existing capacity.
He also indicated that by 2030, no minerals would be exported from Ghana without being processed locally, as part of a broader value-addition agenda aimed at strengthening the economy and creating jobs.
The Accra Reset is an Africa-led initiative advocating a reimagined global health architecture that empowers countries to build resilient and self-sustaining systems. It was launched by President Mahama last year on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly.
The Addis Ababa event was attended by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo; former Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Wamkele Mene; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; Minister of Local Government, Ahmed Ibrahim; and Minister of Works and Housing, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, among others.
Explaining the current cocoa sector crisis, President Mahama said the government had fixed the producer price at 70 per cent of the world market price, which stood at GH¢7,200 per tonne at the time.
“We set the producer price for the farmer. At the time we set the price, the price of cocoa on the international market was GH¢7,200. We have a policy in Ghana where we give the farmer 70 per cent of the world market price. The other 30 per cent is used for administration, to supply fertilizers to the farmers, to provide scholarships for their children, among others.
“The Cedis value was GH¢11.50 for $1 when we set the price. After we set the producer price, the world market price has declined to GH¢4,200. The Cedis has shifted its value to GH¢10.70. So, suddenly it means that for every tonne you buy at the producer price, you have a gap, and so we’ll be losing,” he explained.
He said the nearly 42 per cent decline in international prices, coupled with the appreciation of the cedi, had created a significant financing gap that the government had to absorb.
President Mahama stressed that expanding local processing was critical to economic transformation and youth employment.
“That is the only way we can provide opportunities for our young people,” he said.
He warned that failure to create opportunities at home would continue to push young Africans to embark on perilous migration journeys.
“Our young people are not as patient as our generation. They want to see that progress and prosperity today.
“That is why the country has that tendency that we need to implement in order that we stop our young people from brazing the dangers of the Sahara and the Mediterranean, trying to get to Europe to look for opportunity,” he said.
He urged African leaders to move from rhetoric to implementation, arguing that the continent must take deliberate steps to unlock prosperity for its people.
For his part, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called on African governments to mobilise domestic resources to finance development, while acknowledging the availability of external support.
“Both internally and externally, the money to develop Africa is there. The problem is mobilising the internal resources adequately, without corruption, without risk, without unnecessary non-self-help, and to channel it to development. We’ve been told that we can mobilise up to $4 trillion internally,” he said.
Former President Obasanjo also urged practical steps towards implementing the African Union’s Free Movement Protocol, suggesting that countries already offering visa-on-arrival arrangements should lead the way. He observed that even some AU officials, including the Chairperson of the AU Commission, did not yet hold the proposed AU passport, highlighting what he described as the gap between policy and implementation.
He proposed that willing countries form “Leagues of African Free Movement Countries” to abolish visa requirements among themselves and gradually expand participation. He further advocated increased use of local currencies in transactions to deepen intra-African trade and economic integration.
Former President Obasanjo commended President Mahama for championing the Accra Reset Agenda, describing it as an important tool for advancing Africa’s self-reliance.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh