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COCOBOD chases richest woman over $26m debt

Her company, Plot Enterprise Ghana Limited, is said to be one of five cocoa processing companies that owe Cocobod up to $131 million.

Patricia Poku-Diaby

A recent publication about Ghana’s Rich List has put Patricia Poku-Diaby, touted as the richest woman in the country in big trouble with Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) chasing her for its money, reports.

Ms Poku-Diaby, a business woman and cocoa merchant who was recently named the eighth richest Ghanaian among 80 Ghanaian businessmen and entrepreneurs with a net worth of $720 million in a list compiled by a management and consultancy firm, Goodman AMC, dubbed, ‘The Ghana Wealth Report’, is said to be owing Cocobod an amount of $26.7 million.

Her company, Plot Enterprise Ghana Limited, is said to be one of five cocoa processing companies which owe Cocobod up to $131 million.

The other companies: WAMCO, Cocoa Processing Company, Afro Tropic and Real Products owe Cocobod $49.52 million, $46.36 million, $6.92 million and $2.24 million respectively.

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Reports suggest that the news about her net worth raised concerns as management and staff could not fathom out the reason behind her refusal to honour her indebtedness to the company.

“How can she be that rich and yet refuse to pay Cocobod? It is intriguing that in spite of Patricia Poku-Diaby’s acclaimed riches, her company has not been able to settle its indebtedness for smooth delivery of beans for their operations,” a management member is said to have told

According to him, instead of Ms Poku-Diaby focusing on paying off her debt, she had rather sought support from some powerful politicians and influential individuals in the country to enable her company continue to receive supplies from Cocobod.

However, he said as part of measures to save the board from going bankrupt, Cocobod had stopped supplying cocoa beans to companies which owed it and had further put in place arrangements to forestall the recurrence of such indebtedness by making it mandatory for local processing companies sourcing cocoa beans from Cocobod to provide bank guarantees.

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