Did Ato Boateng influence over $100m IFC support to the Cocoa Industry?

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Did Ato Boateng influence over $100m IFC support to the Cocoa Industry?

After Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr. Ato Boateng’s brief profile, detailing his professional competence, was made available to the public, many have called the Minority in Parliament’s selective amnesia into question.
The Minority in Parliament, led by its Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, launched incessant attacks against the personality of Mr. Boateng raising concerns about his past association with Atlas Commodities Limited.
They alleged that the Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of Finance and Administration might have influenced COCOBOD’s continued business engagement with Atlas Commodities Limited.
The Old Tafo MP has subsequently called on the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe what the Minority describe as a potential conflict of interest.
But many are asking why the Minority is not attributing the over 100 million dollars funding support to COCOBOD by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to Mr. Ato Boateng’s influence because he previously worked with the IFC.
COCOBOD is expected to receive additional financial support from the IFC this year to the tune of $300 million.
“If he is that powerful to influence COCOBOD’s dealings with Atlas, then he is equally powerful to secure them millions from the IFC to manage the billions of legacy debts the NPP administration left behind,” a manager at COCOBOD who pleaded for anonymity argued.

A former constituency chairman of the governing NDC in the Ayawaso Central, Mr. Ebenezer Arkutu also submitted, “So the mere fact that a technocrat like Mr. Ato Boateng worked with Atlas Commodities Limited in the past, COCOBOD cannot do business with the company?
Then the Minority should ask COCOBOD to reject the over 100 million dollars from the IFC because, Mr. Boateng once worked with the IFC.”

It must be pointed out that Mr. Boateng resigned as a director of Atlas Commodities Limited on January 20, 2025, prior to his appointment to COCOBOD in February 2025. He also transferred all his shares in the company to Edinam Yao Cofie and George Ofori, who now manage them as trustees.

Also, to ensure full transparency and compliance with public service regulations, Mr. Boateng stated that he declared his previous interest in Atlas Commodities in his official Declaration of Assets and Liabilities, which has been duly lodged with the Auditor-General.

A brief profile of Mr. Ato Boateng

EDUCATION

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, John F. Kennedy School of Government Cambridge, MA Master of Public Administration (MPA) - June 2016-May 2017
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA BUSINESS SCHOOL
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration; Accounting (first class honors – 3.6/4.0) Accra, Ghana Sept. 2000- May 2004
RECENT SELECTED EXPERIENCES
Ghana Cocoa Board
Deputy Chief Executive (Finance and Administration) - Feb 2025- Present
• Responsible for the improvement of the administrative architecture.
• Responsible for revamping the Risk Department to develop the risk framework of the cocoa industry and developed mitigations to reduce the risk from occurring.
• Responsible for the implementation of strategies to improve the treasury and finance functions of COCOBOD and to ensure liquidity and working capital within the industry.
• Responsible for the digitalization of the cocoa industry processes and documentation.
Atlas Commodities Limited - Accra, Ghana
Chief Executive Officer Feb 2018- Jan 2025
Atlas Commodities Limited is an indigenous licensed cocoa buying company (LBC) engaged in internal marketing of cocoa. Atlas Commodities Limited operates from over 51 districts cocoa district in the cocoa growing areas of Ghana. Atlas runs a farmer cooperative based mode with close to 56,678 cocoa farmers as customers.
* Fundraised US$2.8 million in the first year of Atlas Commodities Limited as a start-up company without relying on Ghana Cocoa Board Seed Fund.
• Doubling as the Chief Finance Officer (CFO), I designed the entire finance function to ensure that the finance function creates value through design of interest-bearing escrow account structures with the local banks and tight management of working capital cycle.
• Working as Chief Operating Officer, I worked closely with very experienced operation managers of top existing LBCs at the time such as Kuapa Cocoa, Olam, and PBC Ltd. Through this deep interaction travelling over 50,000 km to meet farmer cooperatives, I designed a combined franchise and farmer cooperative based operation model, creating a hybrid out of the existing structures.
• With deep understanding of cocoa purchase operation and cocoa finance, I developed the enterprise risk model for the entire company, ensuring that funds borrowed from Ghana Cocoa Board and local banks are repaid on time. To date, Atlas Commodities Limited is not indebted to any bank or to Ghana Cocoa Bard for Seed Funds.
* I designed and oversaw the development of digitalization of the entire operations of Atlas Commodities Limited. We enrolled our farmers, purchasing clerks, and district managers into our cocoa operation and trading platform. We worked with MTN, Ecobank, and Fidelity Bank to run on their agency banking systems to ensure that our farmers and purchasing clerks get the funds that they need. This infrastructure is currently integrated into Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, and MTN payment systems.
Liger Capital Partners/Management Limited - Accra, Ghana
Managing Partner - July 2017-June 2019
Liger Capital Partners/Management Limited was structured as a private equity firm with the aim of owning financial assets such equity in companies. Liger Capital Partners provided corporate finance and debt restructuring advisory services to private companies and sovereign states.
• Mandated and executed a US$100 million credit line for National Investment Bank (NIB) in 2018. This trade line enabled NIB to expand its international trade business.
• Mandated and executed equity raise of US$10 million for Axis Pension Group, one of top three private pension fund managers in Ghana. This equity funds enabled Axis Pension Group to expand into Rwanda and executed acquisition targets in Ghana.
• Was mandated to help restructure, reprofile, and refinance US$10 billion debt of Government of Zambia (GoZ). Through a global network of financiers and advisors, Liger restructured, reprofiled, and secured funding for GoZ. However, pricing negotiation led GoZ to opt for International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout instead.
• Mandated and executed a US$2.8 million seed capital for affiliate company, Atlas Commodities Limited to kick start its cocoa purchase and operations in Ghana.

LIGER HORIZON GROUP - Accra, Ghana
Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - Nov 2015 – Jun 2017

Liger Horizon Group is integrated financial institution providing world class services in the area of infrastructure and energy project finance modelling and structuring advisory, capital raise advisory including debt and equity finance, due diligence and company valuation advisory services.

• Lead Project Advisor: Ghana Western Railway Corridor Project. This is a US$1.6 billion rehabilitation and expansion of the 340 km railway line and related infrastructure from Takoradi Port to Nyinhin Bauxite Mine for Exton Cubic Limited.
• Transaction Advisor: Valco Recovery Plan Project: Led the crafting and execution of US$1.2 billion recovery plan of Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) including the development and operation of 732 MW captive power plant and the related liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure.
• Transaction Advisor: Structuring of US$60 million Revolving Standby-Letter of Credit (SLBC) in favour of Early Power Company, a consortium led by General Electric, Endeavour LLC, and Sage Petroleum Limited
• Advised the Board of Directors of Volta Aluminium Company Limited to restructure its Balance Sheet by undertaking a revaluation of all the Property, Plant, and Equipment (PPE) especially the aluminium plant. This exercise led to the conversion of negative equity of Valco into positive equity which allowed Valco to seek the needed capital to upgrade its cells and convinced government to give more power to Valco to operate two lines instead of one line.
International Finance Corporation (IFC) World Bank Group - Accra, Ghana
A. Investment Officer (Infrastructure & Natural Resources) & Country Officer (Guinea) - July 2012 – Oct 2015
• Oversaw IFC’s project to restructure and refinance US$190 million debt to assist Ghana’s only power transmission utility company to build resilience in weakening macroeconomic environment including developing a complex financial model to support the refinancing.
• Supervised IFC’s Ghana Power Sector Review including developing master cash flow model integrating all sub-sectors including generation, distribution, and transmission into single financial model that was used for informing policy formulation within the World Bank Group and engagement with Ghanaian Government officials
• Headed local IFC’s team to close US$420 million investment in Takoradi International Company (TICO), Ghana’s only Independent Power Producer. Developed project’s documents, which were adopted as templates for subsequent power deals in IFC. I calibrated the financial model to support the investment decision.
• Managed IFC’s US$600 million infrastructure investment portfolio in six countries with twelve different clients, including leading US$300 million restructuring deal for key IFC client to withstand deleterious competitive environment
• Led the IFC team that committed US$25 million into an integrated downstream refine petroleum products in Ghana.
Although committed amount was not drawndown subsequently, this project opened up international opportunity for the local company in accessing international funding.

STRATEGIC AND LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

• Crafted business development strategy that generated three lead arranger mandates for IFC with aggregate investment of US$500 million and solid pipeline of projects totaling US$1.3 billion in Ghana’s infrastructure sector within two years. Received long-term performance award for contribution to project origination and business development
• Led team of global experts across The World Bank Group to craft reengagement strategy for Guinea and helped recruit all investment and operational staff in-country. This led IFC’s senior management to approve US$150 million equity investment in Rio Tinto’s Simandou’s Project, IFC’s biggest single investment to date in Sub-Sahara Africa
Associate Investment Officer & Country Officer of Sierra Leone - July 2010 – June 2012
• Coordinated and led a multi-purpose team of industry, public policy, communication specialists to organize a trade and investment forum for the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). This forum increased the awareness of the investment opportunities in Sierra Leone.
• Arranged round table investment discussion as part of the Trade and Investment Forum between potential Chinese investors and mining companies in Sierra Leone that led to purchase of 25% and 12.5% stakes worth US$1.5 billion and US$256 million respectively in an Iron Ore Company operated out of Sierra Leone.
• Designed a communication and local content strategy to support IFC investment in Kosmos Energy and Tullow Oil in Ghana. Through implementation of the communication strategy, IFC successfully managed a very hostile foreign and local media that sought to access very sensitive project information in the nascent oil and gas industry.
• Led IFC’s team that invested US$65 million equity in Next Generation Broadcasting, a start-up, cable television station in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. I performed the investment plan and industry review to inform the investment committee of the degree of risk and provided risk mitigation.
• Coached, mentored and trained 4 interns from three different local universities in Ghana who were subsequently recruited into IFC and posted to different offices in West and Central Africa.
• Crafted a business development strategy for IFC in the infrastructure sectors in Ghana and also devised a marketing plan to identify sound investment opportunities in these sectors. This led to investment in two power projects and one on-going water project.

STRATEGIC AND LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
• Coordinated and led a multi-purpose team of industry, public policy, communication specialists to organize a trade and investment forum for the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). This forum increased the awareness of the investment opportunities in Sierra Leone.
• Arranged round table investment discussion as part of the Trade and Investment Forum between potential Chinese investors and mining companies in Sierra Leone that led to purchase of 25% and 12.5% stakes worth US$1.5 billion and US$256 million respectively in an Iron Ore Company operated out of Sierra Leone.
• Led key negotiations with Government of Ghana over the issuance of digital transmission license for client who had made significant capital investment into the platform infrastructure but was barred from launching operations. The negotiation led to a compromised position where my client was allowed to utilize a joint venture partner’ platform

Investment Analyst & Country Coordinator Liberia - September 2007 – June 2010
• Conducted a post- merger review of a rubber plantation and processing companies that successfully led to the first ever IFC agribusiness investment of US$50 million in Liberia.
• Calibrated a detailed financial model and prepared all marketing materials to support IFC investment of US$70 million and syndication of US$240 million debt financing of Vodafone Ghana.
• Built a complex oil and gas financial model to facilitate decision-making in approving a US$400 million IFC’s investment in Jubilee Oil & Gas Field operated by Kosmos Energy LLC and Tullow Oil Plc in Ghana.
• Crafted a business development strategy, designed a marketing plan and secured resources from senior management to execute the strategy in West Africa’s mining sector. I travelled across the West Africa region interviewing CEOs, CFOs, and government officials to map out sound investment opportunities in the sector for IFC. Through this systematic exercise, I identified several investment opportunities in many mining companies. IFC invested equity of US$15 million into different companies in three different countries, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Liberia.
• Worked closely with the technology investment department in IFC to invest US$700,000 in Esoko, a startup mobile database company that provide price and market information for rural farmers and petty traders in Ghana.

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS (PwC) - Accra, Ghana
Associate – Senior Associate, Corporate Finance Consulting - Aug 2004-Sept 2007
• Managed five-member team of Associates to successfully design and implement turnaround strategy, including developing innovative cash flow model, for three local businesses, tripling their combined EBITDA and operating cash flow within 1.5 years.
• Developed spreadsheet model to assess competitiveness of 22 banks operating in Ghana as part of annual PwC Banking Survey and convinced junior associates to volunteer their time to conduct the survey and support the analytical work
• Conducted a diagnostic review of the operations of a distressed construction company to come up with options. Used the model output to advice shareholders to sell on a break up basis (liquidate) that resulted in returned surplus of US$10 million to shareholders.
• Conducted a post-acquisition review of a top tier bank to facilitate the consolidation of the financial statements with the parent company
• Conducted a diagnostic review of the operations of a Ghanaian healthcare provider. Review led to the reengineering of the operations of the hospital and improved corporate governance
• Led assignments to support local firms to translate their financial statements from local GAAP to IFRS; and led internal control reviews to ensure compliance with Sarbanes–Oxley rules for local subsidiaries of US SEC restricted entities
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION Professional
Educational certifications
• CFA Charter holder, CFA Institute, Charlotteville, Virginia
• Chartered Accountant (Certified Public Accountant equivalent), Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana)

AWARDS/HONORS
* IFC Global in 2014 presented me a global corporate award for successfully mapping out the infrastructure sectors in Ghana and developing a business development and marketing strategy to identify sound investment opportunities.
* IFC Global in 2013 presented me a global corporate award for successfully extending IFC’s footprint in infrastructure in postconflict countries in Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
• Expanding the frontiers for growth and long-term value creation in Small and Medium Enterprises in Ghana through strategic cross-border corporate development transactions with a particular focus on Mergers and Acquisitions
• Monetary policy dynamics and the impact on value creation in Small and Medium Enterprises – a special focus on prime rate volatilities
• Assessing the role of Ghana’s thin capitalization rules in the financing/capital structure and investment decisions of Small and Medium Enterprises in Ghana

BOARD & ADVISORY MANDATES
• Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO), Ghana’s only aluminium processing company, 2015/2016
• Cardinal Petroleum Limited 2015/2016
• Quantum Group of Companies 2015/2016
• Exton Cubic Group 2015/2016