Int. J. Accounting and Finance, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2017 11 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Financial literacy of cocoa farmers in Ghana George Osei Akoto Akuafo Adamfo Marketing Company Limited, Durban Road, Ahowdjo Kumasi, Kumasi, Ghana Email: goseiakoto@ymail.com Kingsley Opoku Appiah* and James Kennedy Turkson School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Email: koappiah.ksb@knust.edu.gh Email: jkturkson364@yahoo.com *Corresponding author Abstract: Approximately 800,000 farm families are spread over six of ten regions of Ghana while empirical evidence on cocoa farmers’ financial literacy remains sparse. This study examines the level of personal finance literacy among cocoa farmers. It also examines whether gender, age, level of education and farm size are related to cocoa farmers’ financial literacy. A structured questionnaire is employed to collect data from randomly selected 569 cocoa farmers in the Assin Foso and Twifo Praso districts of the Central region. We use logistic regression analysis to estimate whether cocoa farmers’ demographic variables are related to their level of financial literacy. We find that cocoa farmers have lower levels of financial knowledge. The level of financial literacy of cocoa farmers in Ghana is also related to their geographical location, age and education levels. This study provides stakeholders in the finance industry with vital information that will enhance decision making and policy directions. This study contributes to the literature of financial literacy from the perspective of cocoa farmers in Ghana, a Sub-Sahara Africa country. Keywords: financial knowledge; financial capability; financial education; financial literacy survey; financial planning; Ghana. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Akoto, G.O., Appiah, K.O. and Turkson, J.K. (2017) ‘Financial literacy of cocoa farmers in Ghana’, Int. J. Accounting and Finance, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.11–30. Biographical notes: George Osei Akoto holds an MBA in Accounting Option from the KNUST School of Business. He also holds a BCom and Diploma in Commerce from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Presently, he is the Sector Manager in Akuafo Adamfo Marketing Company Limited, a licensed cocoa company. He has been in this industry for a period of 16 years. Kingsley Opoku Appiah holds a PhD from the Loughborough University, and also a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountants-UK and a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants-Ghana. Presently, he is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at the Department of Accounting and Finance, School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.