Accra, Sept. 24, GNA - Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Monday said it had signed a trade facility of 900 million dollars with international financiers for the purchase of cocoa in the 2007-08 crop year. Every year, COCOBOD seeks funding from international financiers for cocoa purchases in the ensuing season.

Last year, it got 850 million dollars through a similar arrangement with its European partners and this year's amount is the highest since 1993.

As has been the case in recent times, this year's facility, signed in Paris with Natixis as lead arranger, was oversubscribed, Cocobod Chief Executive Isaac Osei said.

"The signing of this $900m facility is evidence of the confidence that the financial institutions have in the Cocobod and the Government of Ghana," he said.

Mr. Osei commended Ghanaian farmers for their extreme sacrifice, hard work and commitment in producing good quality cocoa. He also thanked all other stakeholders for their contribution and hard work. He extended an invitation to the mandated lead arrangers and all the banks to exercise the option of a roll over clause in this year's facility, the first of its kind, and come to Ghana for next year's signing ceremony.

Other mandated lead arrangers involved were Standard Chartered Bank, Societ=E9 Generalle and Ghana International Bank. In addition to the traditional banks involved in the trade finance facility, new banks were introduced this year.

Mr. Osei informed the gathering that Government was in the process of issuing a sovereign bond on the international market.

In his opening speech, Didier Locquet Head of Structured Finance and Commodities at Natixis, acknowledged the consistent high quality of Ghana's cocoa beans.

He applauded COCOBOD and the Government for their long-term stable economic policy, which had made the facility being heavily oversubscribed.

Professor Albert Owusu Sarpong, Ghana's Ambassador to France, extolled the good governance, transparency and respect for due process which, he said, had given Ghana the credibility to raise such finance. In March 2007, COCOBOD signed its first medium-term facility of 150 million dollars to improve facilities for quality assurance, expand storage facility and increase productivity per hectare. This facility had an option of being increased to 200 million dollars.

The 2006-07 cocoa crop year ended on September 20 with the Cocobod expecting to buy about 600,000 metric tons of cocoa.

The 2007-08 is expected to open next month.