BoG Warns Exporters Against Withholding Foreign Earnings

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has urged exporters to repatriate all export proceeds through the formal banking system, warning that failure to return foreign earnings weakens the country’s foreign exchange reserves and undermines efforts to stabilise the cedi and contain inflation.

Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Matilda Asante-Asiedu, said unreturned export proceeds limit the country’s ability to finance imports and cushion the economy against external shocks.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the revised Letters of Commitment (LOC) guidelines, she emphasised the need for foreign exchange earned from exports to flow back into the domestic economy.

“Every dollar of exports that fails to come to Ghana has many implications,” she said.

Mrs Asante-Asiedu pointed to rising global oil prices, noting that Ghana’s oil import bill had increased by nearly 40% amid geopolitical tensions.

She explained that the country’s foreign exchange buffers had helped meet import obligations while limiting the impact of external price pressures on domestic prices.

The Deputy Governor also underscored the importance of exchange rate stability to businesses, particularly shipping operators whose operational costs are largely denominated in foreign currencies.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, cautioned exporters against allowing their businesses or shipping processes to be used to transport illicit drugs.

He warned that involvement in such activities could damage Ghana’s international reputation and subject legitimate traders to heightened scrutiny, delays and other operational challenges.

“They shouldn’t allow themselves for a few greedy and selfish people to use their processes to transport or to use them to transport some of these illicit drugs,” he said.

Prof. Gyampo also urged exporters to comply with the LOC requirements to ensure that export proceeds are returned through commercial banks.

For his part, Head of Revenue Assurance at the Ministry of Finance, Victor Kofi Baidoo, warned that exporters who fail to repatriate their earnings risk having their transactions classified as domestic sales, making them liable for applicable duties, taxes and other sanctions.

“This means that any export declaration without a repatriation would not be considered an export and would be seen as domestic sales,” he said.

Mr Baidoo explained that amendments to the Customs Act had made the repatriation of export proceeds a key requirement for completing export declarations.

He said the measures form part of broader efforts to strengthen compliance, prevent revenue losses and ensure that foreign exchange generated from exports benefits the Ghanaian economy.