2025 Budget: Cocoa sector is sadly on its knees – Finance Minister

• Posted on March 11, 2025March 11, 2025
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Minister of Finance Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has told Parliament during the 2025 budget presentation that the cocoa sector is collapsing.

He attributed this to high debts in the sector.

He told Parliament on Tuesday, March 11 that “COCOBOD’s outstanding debt stands at 32 billion Cedis”

He stressed “The cocoa sector is sadly on its knees, with unsustainable debts. Cocoa production had dropped nearly by 50 per cent over the past three years.”

The Finance Minister further said that President John Dramani Mahama will restore hope in the economy.

He says the President is taking steps to remedy the challenges in the economy.

“He will fix the economy, restore hope and build the Ghana we want,” the Finance Minister said.

He told Parliament that the Mahama administration inherited an economy deep in crisis and hard hit with debts.

In the area of procurement, the Finance Minister assured that the Mahama administration will comply with the public procurement process and link them to the approved budget.

“We will respect limit of the appropriations as approved by Parliament,” he said.

Regarding the 24 Hour Economy, the Finance Minister assured that “We will be presenting the 24-hour economy policy to Parliament in due course.”