Ghana’s Cocobod is seeking up to $1.5 billion from China’s Eximbank to improve farms and install irrigation systems and other projects, the regulator’s chief executive Joseph Aidoo said on Wednesday.
A man carries a cocoa bag while walking over cocoa beans left out to dry in Niable, at the border between Ivory Coast and Ghana, June 19, 2014. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon
China will also grant the West African country $35 million to help build a 40,000-tonne state-run cocoa processing plant, Aidoo told reporters at the start of a meeting with a Chinese technical team in the capital Accra.
“We have been in discussions since last year to secure $1.5 billion to finance our plans, mainly to replant diseased and aged trees, build warehouses and cocoa roads to improve farmers’ income, and also to provide irrigations in the face of changing climate conditions,” said Aidoo.
