New Telegraph 
Access Bank Ghana Plc and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to inject $134 million into the cocoa value chain.
According to agency reports, the agreement, tar- gets the acute financing gap faced by Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), the essential intermediaries who bridge the gap between smallholder farmers and the international market. By providing affordable credit and enhancing liquidity, the partnership aims to transform the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of a sector that supports over 800,000 farm families nationwide.
The deal is structured through an unfunded riskparticipation facility. Under this arrangement, the IFC— leveraging its own resources and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)—will provide up to $67 million in risk support.
This allows Access Bank Ghana to double that capacity, extending a total of $134 million in credit to seven leading LBCs. The facility is specifically designed to bypass the traditional hurdles of regulatory capital and single-obligor limits that often prevent local banks from lending at the scale required by the cocoa industry.
Commenting on the initiative, the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs Matilda Asante-Asiedu, characterised the risk-sharing scheme as a vital tool for national economic resilience. “The risk-sharing guarantee scheme represents a strategic partnership to unlock opportunities across the agricultural sector, particularly cocoa,” Mrs AsanteAsiedu remarked.
She further noted that ensuring the liquidity of LBCs is a matter of national importance, as a stable cocoa sector helps safeguard rural incomes, supports the cedi, and contributes to the resilience of the exchange rate.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Accra, Pearl Nkrumah, the Managing Director of Access Bank Ghana, described the intervention as a strategic “unlocking” of the sector’s potential. “Access Bank’s support to LBCs will unlock the liquidity they need during the purchasing season, help improve traceability.
