Cocoa Processing Company Limited, CPC, has incurred an 18.6 million dollars loss for the 2019‐2020 production year.
At the Annual General Meeting of the company in Accra, the loss according to the company resulted from the wreckage of the global coronavirus malaise and frequent breakdown of over‐aging equipment of the company, adversely impacting production.
The accrued indebtedness of CPC over the years currently stands at 108 million dollars, with COCOBOD and CMC as some of its creditors. The longstanding debt affecting operations of the company has compelled some shareholders to call for resolution and reconstitute it to begin afresh.
Management of the company says revaluation of the company’s property, plant and equipment in 2019, modification of a contracted loan term increasing interest rate from 1.5 to 5% resulting in the upsurge of company’s depreciation charge to 6.3 from 3.6 million dollars coupled with the adverse effect of the COVID‐19 caused the company a loss of $18.6 for the 2019‐2020 fiscal year.
As a result of such operational losses emanating from the above challenges, the company was unable to pay dividends to the shareholders for the 2019‐2020 year.
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Managing Director of CPC, Nana Agyenim Boateng, explained that the $18.6 loss is not an added loss per se, but the result of the revaluation of the assets of the company and loan modification.
Touching on an expected loan for injection into the company, Nana Agyenim Boateng said the loan has been increased from 70 to 86.7 million dollars to enable it to retool the various components of the company, particularly the confectionery in order to increase production by producing finished products to fetch more money for the company.
The loan, according to him is part of a strategic plan to raise the production capacity of the company to pay its debt in the next six years. The MD hinted that Cocoa Processing company intends to be the largest beneficiary of the 100 billion dollars world chocolate market, consolidate its performance on the African market scene capitalizing on the enviable reputation of CPC and for that matter Ghana chocolate as the finest in the world.
Expressing dissatisfaction at the performance of the company, shareholders implored management to consider solar energy to wean itself from the national power grid which forms a substantial amount of their production cost. They also suggested that CPC tailor its production also to domestic demand to increase consumption among Ghanaians, especially young people.
Replacements were made for two board of directors, Ben Abdullah Banda, a government appointee, and Abdul‐Samed Adams, a representative of the CPC workers who retired in the course of the year.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Edward Sebbie