The prolonged financial crisis at the Produce Buying Company Limited (PBC) has escalated, with an auctioneer moving to attach the company’s properties at Tema. This enforcement action comes after a consortium of banks moved to recover a debt of GHC 305,170,856.50, updating earlier figures from a High Court ruling.
The creditor banks, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Bank of Africa Ghana, CalBank PLC, GCB Bank PLC, Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana, have initiated the attachment and sale of PBC’s assets following the company’s default on loan repayments. While a January 2024 Accra High Court decision originally authorized this process, and subsequent legal defences have now fallen, the situation on the ground has turned serious.
The most visible sign of the crisis unfolded at PBC’s premises on April 30, 2026, in Tema, where an auctioneer arrived to enforce the court order. Approximately 32 vehicles parked on the premises were taken away for a possible auction. Some of the vehicles were towed, while others were driven off the site by officials.
In an interesting twist, some drivers and workers at the scene expressed a sense of relief rather than despair. According to them, they are happy this action is taking place because for three years they have not been paid. The comments show the deep financial distress and low morale within the state-backed cocoa giant.
This development overtakes earlier expectations of a government bailout. For months, PBC Managing Director Seidu Yonye had pursued two parallel options including direct negotiations with the creditor banks and an “expectation of government coming to take off this burden of debts from the bank from us.” However, that government intervention has failed to materialize in time to halt the auctioneer’s gavel.
Tracing PBC’s financial statements for the year ended September 30, 2024, showed a huge decline, with group revenue amounting about 95 per cent to GH¢41.5 million, down from GH¢778.9 million. External auditors, Adom Boafo & Associates, issued a qualified opinion stating the company is “facing going concern challenges which continues to deteriorate.”
The Group’s loss after tax widened to GH¢69.9 million, and total equity stands at a negative GH¢441.3 million, meaning debts far outweigh assets. The directors have acknowledged that “the company is technically bankrupt.”
PBC traces its roots to 1947, and the government is not a distant observer. The Social Security and National Insurance Trust holds 38.1 per cent of PBC’s shares, while the Ministry of Finance owns 36.69 per cent. Together, state entities control approximately 75 per cent of the company. This means the auction of PBC’s assets is effectively a sale of state property to settle debts owed to private banks.
Workers have staged multiple protests over months of unpaid salaries. Seth Adusei, Vice Chairman of the PBC Workers’ Union, had previously drawn a comparison, noting that “COCOBOD, with its debt stock of about 32 billion, still has the government’s keen interest… so why can’t the same government do anything about PBC?”
In February 2026, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson announced reforms including a directive for local cocoa processing and the “immediate revival” of PBC. Yet weeks later, no concrete financial intervention has been announced. The banks’ legal right to auction PBC’s assets remains unaddressed, and now, with vehicles being towed from the Tema premises, the auction process has visibly begun.
Although the Managing Director of PBC Limited, Seidu Yonye, has appealed to the consortium of banks to grant the company more time to secure internal approvals from shareholders, including the Ministry of Finance, to complete key corporate governance processes needed to unlock asset-based arrangements for debt repayment, if the auction proceeds fully, assets built over seven decades, including the company’s headquarters, regional offices, warehouses, and the very vehicles being seized today, could be sold piecemeal.
