Citi Business News has gathered that Ghana will soon start inviting bids for the auctioning of the foreign-exchange proceeds from the Ghana Cocoa Board’s syndicated loans for the 2016/2017 crop season.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issahaku explains that the move is to deepen the liberalization of the country’s currency market.
“We want to start in September where the funds will still come to the central bank and we will develop a rule based market driven auction system, where banks would approach the central bank with the demand for foreign exchange and then allocation would be made base on this rule based market driven auction framework,” the Governor remarked.
Although Dr. Issahaku opined that the central bank would not allow the 1.8 billion dollars onto the market, as he contends the current financial market lacks the capability absorb the funds, he assured that the central bank was doing all that it can to deepen the market by building the capacity if the banks to be able to accept the funds.
“But over time, as the market deepens, then the funds can now go straight to the commercials banks as they would have developed the capability to absorb those huge funds directly to the market.”
Dr. Issahaku again maintained, “This is part of the one of the reforms to ensure that just like the receipts from exports of minerals are held, the same principle is applied to export of cocoa receipts which are supposed to be channeled through the commercial banks directly.”
COCOBOD on Wednesday, September 21, signed a 1.8 billion dollar loan facility for the purchase of cocoa beans for the 2016/2017 crop year which comes with an all-inclusive rate of 1.468 percent.
Under the agreement, COCOBOD is entitled to an extra 200 million dollars from the syndicated banks if the cocoa crop performs better and requires further funds.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana