Bank of Ghana to end collection of gold and cocoa proceeds

ACCRA, Ghana, Capital Markets in Africa — The Bank of Ghana will this year end its policy of forcing cocoa and gold-producers to remit export proceeds to the central bank.

The bank will phase out the policy in four steps to prevent disruptions to the foreign-exchange market, the bank stated. Those will include establishing a strong monitoring system to ensure export revenues are released into the market via commercial banks, and sold on a “need basis,” it said.

“In our discussions, we have observed that certain preconditions must be in place before the complete elimination of the surrender requirements,” Bank of Ghana said. The mandatory surrender requirement will be fully eliminated “once the foreign-exchange market is well-functioning,” it said.

Monetary policy will remain tight through 2017 as the central bank sees inflation trending toward the target of 6 percent to 10 percent by the end of that year.