According to the records available to us at the Ghana International Trade & Finance Conference (GITFiC), between July and December 2018, 13 auctions were conducted and the Renminbi worth CNY669.66m was sold from the drawdown of CNY1bn.
Similarly, in its 2019 Activity Report, the apex bank said 26 auctions were conducted and Renminbi worth CNY782.66m was sold in 2019 from the drawdown of CNY1bn.
The Central Bank of Nigeria also disclosed that it sold 1.45bn yuan since the inception of the currency swap deal with China at the end of 2019.
In a similar report for the first half of 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria said it sold CNY1.746.40bn from inception to the end of June 2020.
Even in the sub-region with adequate data available to us at GITFiC, trade volume between China and the 15 countries of the ECOWAS was $34.55bn, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percent. China’s exports to ECOWAS were $27.61bn, an increase of 1.2 percent; imports from ECOWAS were $6.94bn, at a decrease of 5.8 percent.
The Ghana International Trade & Finance Conference (GITFiC) is of the view that the Ghanaian Central Bank should not be compelled into entering into such an agreement, especially, at this period of Ghana’s economy. The Central Bank of Ghana should ignore noise from any persons or groups of stakeholders in this direction. They are baseless, uninformed, unscientific, and a mere talk-talk.
”We further suggest to the Central Bank of Ghana that the GHS – RMB Cross Border Payment & Settlement Program should still be shelved until further notice. First steps first. The Chinese Yuan is already trading on the Ghanaian Forex space. Traders can buy the Yuan with cedis and proceed to trade in China and vice versa”.
We call on all well-meaning Ghanaian citizens and the entire business community to trust in Ghana’s current Economic Management Team (EMT). Their abilities and capabilities are solid and are very much able to handle the down-turn of the US dollar – GHS and bring it back to its past glory in the coming months. It will get worse before it gets better. GITFiC has an unprecedented faith and belief in the current government of Ghana.
GITFiC has projected good times ahead in our Economic Outlook Projections in January this year and we still stand by that. From where we are positioned, we do know that frantic efforts are underway.
”We further advise our distinguished traders to stay put and advance in their various trading activities on an economic-scientific basis. Ghanaian traders should adapt to new formulas and changes in global trade. In areas that they lack the technical understanding and knowhow, prudent avenues such as the technical teams in our various sector ministries and other private entities are available to help them out”.
Read also: Ghana International Trade & Finance Conference (GITFiC)
