The Ghana Cocoa Board signed the transaction with Standard Bank as one of the joint mandated lead arrangers; the others are ICBC, Credit Agricole, Ghana International Bank and Sumitomo.

Stanbic Bank Ghana, a member of the Standard Bank Group, confirmed that a record number of commitments have been secured for Ghana Cocoa Board’s 17th annual pre-export finance facility (COCOBOD).

The transaction was oversubscribed at US$1.834bn, and the Borrower increased the facility size to US$1.5bn. A total of 28 banks, including the MLAs, confirmed participation, with ticket sizes following scale-backs ranging from 5million US dollars to 100 million US dollars. This is an annual facility and this year Standard Bank is the leading arranger.

Standard Bank was one of the joint mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) for the 1.2 billion US dollars transaction along with Crédit Agricole, ICBC, Ghana International Bank and SMBC.

“Cocoa is a strategic economic commodity for Ghana both as a significant contributor to GDP and as a consistent source of foreign exchange earnings. It is therefore necessary for us as a bank to promote and enhance the industry and we are happy to do this,” Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of the bank has said.

Established in 1947, Ghana Cocoa Board is the chief proponent of the production, processing and marketing of cocoa, coffee and sheanut in Ghana. Ghana is the 2nd largest cocoa beans exporter in the world after Ivory Coast, providing approximately 18% of the world cocoa supply.

COCOBOD continues to promote the increase in crop with larger planted acreage, improved pest control and purchase price incentives for domestic producers.

Farmers are currently paid a minimum of 70% of the FOB price in local currency as well as biannual bonus payments. Ghana cocoa is of superior quality and commands a quality premium reflecting the excellent growing conditions, fermentation and collection care that COCOBOD designs into the supply chain.

Stressing the significance of the deal, “We strongly believe that turning the continent’s massive agricultural land resource into highly productive farms will alleviate poverty and bring about food security on the continent,” said Jacques Taylor, Director of Agricultural Banking at Standard Bank Africa in an online interview she made with Africanews.com.

“As a bank we have an important role to play as a facilitator of agricultural growth in Africa,” she added.

Mr. Kwamina Asomaning, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at the bank in Ghana on his part said: “Standard Bank continues to be regarded internationally as one of Africa’s leaders in supporting Agriculture”.

Ghana is the world’s second largest producer and exporter of cocoa and earns approximately 40% of its foreign exchange revenues from cocoa. The cocoa sector plays a leading role in Ghana’s economy, employing over 2 million farmers and buying agents. The need for this partnership cannot be overemphasized”.

The structure of this deal remains unchanged, with the facility used to purchase cocoa beans for the 2010/11 season, and secured by the assignment of export contracts from overseas buyers.