The Company has therefore put in place measure and a new management to secure equity funding.

In the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kofi Owusu Boateng's review, he said that the Company started with the hope that it would improve its performance to ameliorate the continuous financial losses. Unfortunately, both external and internal factors continued to militate against the realization of this dream, culminating in the company achieving loss of GHC22.442 million against a loss of GHC15.924 million for the previous year.

He stated that some of the notable causes were  the company's reliance on borrowing from the market to supplement funds for purchases  which presented it with a cost outlay too heavy to bear. The need for supplementary funds beyond that from the traditional COCOBOD source continued to place the operations of the Company  on excessive Short Term borrowings at high interest charges. "In the year under review, the Company spent about 45.7 per cent of its Gross Operational Earnings in servicing Finance Cost" he said.

He again said that the general unfavourable economic environment caused by excessive increase in costs of all major operational inputs and logistics.

"Also for example we bought Shea nuts in the 2015/2016  for delivery to PBC Shea Factory in Buipe but  the machines were not working, the Shea nuts had to be there".  Since the nuts are perishable goods, Mr Boateng said that they got rotten and had to be sold at a reduced cost which resulted in loses .

The company now has a new management and it is the hope that measures put in place will turn things around. Mr Boateng also said in a media interview that they are in the process of getting offshore banks whose names he withheld, from some countries to help address the loses the company has made. He said another reason PBC made loses was due to inadequate funding.

In order to address the issue of loses, the company has considered cutting down on administrative costs and some of its operations such as  reducing medicals and fuel consumption. He also said they are rationalising the use of electricity which increases costs. They are also reviewing the current mode of operations of the Company's secondary fleet of vehicles to introduce more efficiency as a means of generating more revenue

He also  said that government's support in the form of funding is needed to address the loses because government is the biggest shareholder . He disclosed that SSNIT and Ministry  of Finance own 75 per cent of the shares .

The company according to him can only be turned around if they are able to purchase more cocoa. "Other funding options for cocoa purchases will be examined to ensure adequate and timely funding for the Company. In order to enable the Company purchase more cocoa to improve its market share, revenue and to stay competitive".

The Board Chairman for PBC , Mr Charles Benard Ntim also said that National Cocoa purchases increased by 25 per cent from 774,000 tonnes in 2015/2016 to 969,000 tonnes during the year under review. They also registered increased purchases by 12.78 per cent from 240,297 tonnes in 2015/2016 to 271,000 tonnes during the year. This notwithstanding your company achieved a market share of 27.8 per cent as against 31.0 per cent of the year before.

He also said that the PBC Shea Limited which had not been fully operational due to technical challenges  is now in full operation due to a retooling of the plant with enhanced capacity. He said the factory is a potential foreign exchange earner for the PBC Group and has great potential as a revenue generating outlet as well.

Again, PBC's subsidiary Golden Bean Hotel was yet to return positive results in terms of profitability despite making positive impact in the hospitality industry in Kumasi. It earned a total revenue of GHC9,957,042, expended GHC 6,341,979 in direct operating expenses and GHC6,170,607 in administrative and general expenses. This resulted in direct operating loss of GHC2,555,545. The management is however expecting to reverse this having put in place measures and strategies.

"The need to introduce equity into the capital structure of the Company cannot be over emphasised looking at the precarious state of its balance sheet. The Board and Management will pursue this issue through serious engagements and consultations with the two major shareholders that is the Ministry of Finance and SSNIT"  he said.

The meeting was attended by Charles Bernard Ntim;Board Chairman, Kofi Owusu Boateng;Chief Executive Officer, as well as other directors on the board, stakeholders and shareholders. Attendees were given the oppourtunity to interact with board and ask questions concerning their investments.