Afreximbank offers financing to help Ghana address foreign exchange liquidity challenge

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says it has made a proposal to introduce foreign exchange swap arrangements aimed at advancing the availability of foreign exchange to the Bank of Ghana as part of a foreign exchange liquidity support for imports into the country.

In a press release issued Monday August 10, 2015 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the Bank says its President Designat, Dr. Benedict Oramah, announced the proposal Friday in Accra during a meeting with Seth Terkper, Ghana’s Minister of Finance.

According to the release, he said, the initiative was part of a country assistance programme which Afreximbank was developing to help Ghana address the economic challenges it was facing as a result of the recent global financial crisis.

Dr. Oramah was cited as saying that, as part of the country assistance programme, Afreximbank planned to support Ghanaian banks engaged in trade finance to meet temporary foreign exchange shortfalls with an initial investment of $200 million, expand lines of credit to Ghanaian Banks to enable them finance import of essential goods, including energy generation, and pursue the ongoing discussion with the Volta River Authority to provide it with additional funding of up to $300 million to enable it continue to pay for feed-stock imports and to clear arrears to local banks.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi