Dr. Randy Abbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), has revealed that the institution faced severe financial and operational difficulties when he assumed leadership, characterising its situation as the most fragile in almost eight decades.
In an interview on The Point of View aired on Channel One TV on Monday, February 9, 2026, Dr. Abbey said COCOBOD’s outstanding obligations amounted to GH¢32.9 billion as at the close of 2024, alongside a negative net asset position of roughly GH¢3.8 billion—signalling that the organisation’s liabilities had overtaken its asset base.
He explained that this was the first instance since COCOBOD’s establishment that the Board had fallen into negative equity, in contrast to 2016, when the institution recorded a net positive equity balance of about GH¢1.8 billion.
“At the end of 2024, when I took over, COCOBOD was carrying a debt stock of GH¢32.9 billion and had slipped into a negative equity position of approximately GH¢3.8 billion. By comparison, in 2016, the Board reported a positive equity position of around GH¢1.8 billion,” Dr. Abbey noted.
“By end-2024, COCOBOD’s liabilities exceeded its assets by nearly GH¢4 billion. This has never happened in the organisation’s history, which is currently 79 years old and will mark its 80th anniversary next year. That is the situation we inherited,” he added.
Dr. Abbey pointed to COCOBOD’s extensive commitments under cocoa road construction contracts as a key driver of the financial stress, estimating the total value of such contracts at about GH¢26 billion.
He clarified, however, that only GH¢4.4 billion of this exposure has been formally recognised as debt, as it represents certified works that have matured into payable obligations.
“We inherited the cocoa road contract commitments of approximately GH¢26 billion. Of this amount, only GH¢4.4 billion has crystallised as debt, because those were certificates that had been issued and lodged with our finance office,” he explained.
The COCOBOD Chief Executive also highlighted inefficiencies in procurement practices, particularly in the purchase of jute sacks used for cocoa packaging.
According to him, the Board repeatedly procured additional jute sacks each year despite significant existing stock, resulting in avoidable spending of about $48 million.
Dr. Abbey indicated that the combined effect of accumulated liabilities, outstanding contractual obligations, and procurement weaknesses largely explains the GH¢32.9 billion debt position inherited by the current administration, underscoring the magnitude of the restructuring effort required to restore financial stability and rebuild confidence in the cocoa sector regulator.
