In a move signalling deep financial distress within Ghana’s vital cocoa sector, the Executive Management and Senior Staff of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) have voluntarily reduced their own salaries with immediate effect.
An official statement released on Monday, February 16, 2026, confirmed that the pay cuts are a direct response to the “current liquidity challenges” plaguing the industry.
The decision, announced for the remainder of the 2025/26 crop year, will see the Board’s top leadership absorb a 20 per cent reduction in remuneration, while Senior Staff have accepted a 10 per cent cut.
The document, signed by the Chief Executive and distributed to all media houses, frames the move as a necessary measure of last resort. “The Executive Management and the Senior Staff of COCOBOD have, effective today, Monday, February 16, 2026, reduced their salaries… in recognition of the current liquidity challenges in the cocoa industry,” the statement reads.
According to the release, this financial self-sacrifice is just one component of a broader, more aggressive cost-containment strategy. “This decision and other cost cutting measures in procurement and a staff rationalisation exercise are aimed at reducing the overall expenditure of COCOBOD and aligning cost with revenue,” the Board explained.
The announcement lands against a backdrop of heightened turbulence in the West African cocoa sector. In recent weeks, the industry has been engulfed in a national debate over producer pricing, the financial viability of farming, and the escalating operational costs faced by the regulator.
Analysts have long warned of the strain caused by the massive financing required for annual purchases, combined with the sector’s heavy exposure to the whims of the global commodities market.
The move comes days after the government reduced the producer price of cocoa to GH¢41,392 per tonne and GH¢2,587 per bag for the remainder of the 2025/2026 crop season, citing a sharp fall in global market prices and mounting liquidity pressures within the sector.
Announcing the decision at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, February 12, 2026, the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, said the adjustment was necessary to reflect current international price realities while protecting farmers’ incomes as much as possible.
He explained that the 2025/2026 cocoa season began in August 2025 with a producer price of GH¢51,660 per tonne. At that time, the price was calculated at 70 per cent of a gross free-on-board price of 7,200 US dollars per tonne, using an exchange rate of 10.25 cedis to the dollar.
The new price of GH¢41,392 per tonne translates directly into GH¢2,587 for each 64-kilogramme bag of cocoa, marking a reduction of GH¢16,608 per tonne and GH¢1,038 per bag from the October 2025 rate of GH¢58,000 per tonne and GH¢3,625 per bag
