The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has sold approximately US$125 million to commercial banks in its maiden foreign exchange auction under a new framework aimed at improving transparency, fairness and regulatory compliance in the foreign exchange market.
The auction, conducted on Tuesday, forms part of GoldBod’s plan to provide authorised commercial banks with predictable access to US dollars through its electronic GoldBod GoFX platform.
The programme is expected to generate about US$1.5 billion, comprising US$1 billion to be sold to commercial banks and US$500 million to be advanced to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to support the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves.
GoldBod had earlier announced plans to sell US$1 billion to commercial banks during the month to support stability in the foreign exchange market.
Under the new framework, foreign exchange sales will take place twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Participating banks will submit requests within designated sales windows, with allocations made on a pro-rata basis where demand exceeds available supply.
Transactions will be settled on the same day.
To prevent speculative activity, participating banks must declare that their requests are backed by actual unmet foreign exchange demand or evidence of a short position. They are also required to comply with applicable BoG regulations and directives.
The programme will operate under the central bank’s regulatory oversight, with the BoG granted real-time access to the GoFX platform. GoldBod will also submit transaction reports after each sale.
The electronic platform features request submission and allocation processing, time-stamping, transaction histories and audit trails to strengthen accountability and enable post-trade verification.
The framework was outlined at a meeting between GoldBod and commercial banks ahead of its rollout.
The initiative is intended to improve access to dollars through a more structured allocation process while strengthening oversight of transactions.
Its effectiveness will depend on consistent foreign exchange supply and how well allocations meet legitimate market demand, alongside its contribution to reserve accumulation and stability in Ghana’s foreign exchange market.
Source: businesspostonline
