BoG to save cedi’s free fall with $650m of cocoa syndicated loan

About 650 million dollars from the cocoa syndicated loan is to hit the Bank of Ghana’s account today.

This is because the COCOBOD will make the first draw down from the loan to be lodged in the central bank’s account.

The figure represents fifty percent of the 1.3 billion dollars that the Ghana COCOBOD secured from the syndicated banks in September.

This also comes two weeks after the regulator completed the transaction.

The Bank of Ghana’s ability to access the money means it should be able to undertake major programs that require international currencies.

A major one will be that the central bank will use proceeds to shore up the supply of dollars in the system.

As a result, banks as well as corporate institutions will get access to more dollars to supply to their customers or business transactions respectively.

The cedi’s poor performance against major trading currencies has been a source of worry for many persons particularly importers.

The currency’s depreciation which hit seven percent last month, has led to more demand for dollars as the exchange rate hit about 5 cedis to a dollar at some forex bureaus.

Meanwhile, the second tranche of the cocoa syndicated loan should be hitting the central bank’s accounts by the end of November 2018.

source: citinewsroom