New Bank of Ghana rules: exporters to submit forex to local banks

The Bank of Ghana has issued new directives requiring cocoa and mineral exporters to sell the portion of their foreign exchange to be surrendered, directly to local commercial banks and not the central bank from July 1, 2016.

The central bank said export receipts from the cocoa syndication loan and exporters under retention agreements who are allowed to operate offshore accounts will be exempt from the new rules on the repatriation of export proceeds.

“Effective July 1, 2016 all exporters, except exporters who operate in accordance with Retention Agreements and who have been permitted to operate accounts offshore, would be required to repatriate in full, all their export receipts to banks in Ghana, for the credit of their foreign exchange accounts (FEA) or to be converted into cedis on need basis,” the bank said in a public notice.

By the amendment, exporters will have to repatriate their export proceeds from an external bank to their foreign exchange account at a local bank. Exporters with multiple foreign exchange accounts will repatriate to the local bank which endorsed the export documents, after which the exporter will then have to sell the forex to any local bank within three working days.

The central bank said the changes are part of measures to “deepen the foreign exchange market and promote greater transparency in the determination of the exchange rate.”

By Emmanuel Odonkor

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