As part of measures to curb the challenges faced by exporters, the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) have embarked on a nation-wide tour to sensitise exporters to appreciate the new regime of the Bank of Ghana (LoC).
The move is to ensure sanity in the sector and enhance the repatriation of export proceeds.
A team of facilitators are on a month-long nationwide sensitisation to educate exporters in five regional capitals, namely: Kumasi, Bolgatanga, Tamale, Takoradi and Cape Coast.
Speaking on behalf of the CEO of the GSA Ms. Benonita Bismarck in Cape Coast on 21st August 2022, the Takoradi Branch Manager, Mrs. Agnes Asamoah Duku, lauded the BoG for their collaboration.
An inter-sectorial committee has been constituted to streamline the processes of the LoC regime to better serve the needs of exporters. The committee includes the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Ghana Revenue Authority Customs Division, Ghana Link Network Services Limited, Bank of Ghana, and the Ghana Association of Banks.
The move, she said, was in response to complaints from exporters and cross-border traders on the challenges faced in processing LoCs for their export during the sensitisation.
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. The central bank, since July 2016, incorporated the LoC into the electronic export monitoring platform to track export proceeds.
The Head of Foreign Operations at the bank, Mr. Eric Hammond, took participants through the legal and regulatory framework for the LoC and emphasised the need to comply with the provisions of the law in the repatriation of proceeds to help shore up the nation’s reserves.
More than Five Hundred (500) exporters and stakeholders in the shipping and logistics industry such as banks, insurance companies and freight forwarders have attended the nationwide sensitisation so far.
