A new six-bank consortium has won the Ghana National Cocoa Board’s (Cocobod’s) annual pre-export finance (PXF) facility, which stands at US$1.6bn this year.

The deal, confirmed to GTR by a DZ Bank official, is US$400mn larger than the deal transacted last year, which was arranged by First Rand Merchant Bank, Nedbank, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), Crédit Agricole and Société Générale.

This year’s arrangement sees a new mix of lenders collaborating and includes:
– Barclays;
– Commerzbank;
– Deutsche Bank;
– DZ Bank;
– KfW Bank;
– Natixis

The DZ Bank official informed GTR that further details about the arrangement will be published imminently.

The Cocobod PXF has been internationally syndicated since 1994 and Ghana produces an average of 800,000 tonnes of cocoa a year.