Ghana to lose US$15billion in the next 5 years due to export restrictions by BoG

As Ghana is in dire need of American greenback to shore up its depleting reserve, the Bank of Ghana, with its export restriction rules, is making the country lose more than US$3billion annually.

According to some concerned exporters, these restrictive rules have served as a disincentive to many exporters in the country, especially when the Bank of Ghana does not pre-finance their exports.

"If this Letters of Commitment (LoC) rule is not reversed in earnest by the Bank of Ghana, the country is likely to lose close to US$ 15 billion in the next five years," revealed by Francis Gbedemah, an exporter.

In 2022, the Bank of Ghana constituted an inter-sectorial committee to streamline the processes of the LoC regime to better serve the needs of exporters. The LoC is a web-based export document that is generated by exporters from the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) portal to accompany all exports from Ghana.

But this has rather dwindled export business in the country while Ghanaian quality products have been repositioned for exports, making the economy missing such a great opportunity.

Total earnings from the Non-Traditional Exports in 2023 was US$ 3,944,146,717. The figure represents 11.4% increase over the 2022 earnings. This figure could have doubled without this directive with the ongoing Ghana’s industrialization drive.

According to the Bank of Ghana, every exporter who exports a volume of goods out of this country must bring the corresponding value of money into the country, or else the exporting company would be blacklisted.

This, the concerned exporters, have described as ‘short sight reasoning’ since the Bank of Ghana does not pre-finance their exports to other countries.

"We can not phantom why this directive is coming from the Bank of Ghana. How can we bring in the corresponding value of money when we export sample of goods for marketing and also finance the promotion and distribution of the product without any state support or when an external entity pre-financed an export commodity?" They quizzed.

"With these draconian tactics, we are denying our produce and products for being on international shelves as well as denying the economy of the needed returns and its corresponding income to exporters and the people of Ghana.

Can multinationals working in Ghana be asked to return their full sales to their home countries? This could have collapsed Ghana’s economy overnight," they added.

Ghana's position on the LoC could trigger trade tension among trade partners and trigger further decline of Ghana’s economy as they make full returns on their investment, they lament.

They, however, called on the Vice President, Dr Bawumia, and the able Finance Minister as a matter of urgency to reverse this draconian policy directive.