ACCRA, Sept. 25 — Ghanaian authorities will work with their Chinese counterparts to eliminate third-party currency settlements in transactions between Ghanaian traders and Chinese suppliers, Johnson Asiama, governor of the Bank of Ghana, has said.
Asiama said during the latest Monetary Policy Committee press briefing late Thursday that the defining structural shift, which will end the third-party currency settlement regime, is necessary to enhance Ghana-China bilateral trade, as traders seek to leverage the zero-tariff policy offered by the Chinese government to 53 African countries it has diplomatic relations with.
According to the governor, the West African country is putting measures in place to create a Ghana cedi-China RMB cross-currency settlement path between Ghana and China, as intermediary currencies create a double-conversion regime, imposing double conversion commissions on traders instead of a single payment.
Asiama said the central bank has given its blessings to the initiative by Stanbic Bank, a local subsidiary of Standard Bank of South Africa, and the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Ghana’s largest indigenous bank, to pilot the system of direct cross-currency settlement between Ghana and China.
The governor described China as a strategic trading partner for the West African country, adding that the Bank of Ghana would continue to engage with it on various issues of mutual interest.
“Stanbic Bank is piloting a program to ensure that importers no longer need U.S. dollars to pay for their imports from China. They can actually pay in Ghana cedis right from here,” he revealed in response to a question from Xinhua.
GCB Bank PLC, Ghana’s largest domestic bank by assets, is also carrying out a similar pilot project to enable Ghanaian traders to bypass third-party currencies in their trade with China, according to the governor. “So we are taking those developments very seriously, in line with the growing trade relationship with China.”
In collaboration to ensure active monetary and financial support toward the success of the Chinese government’s zero-tariff offer to 53 African countries, the governor said the Bank of Ghana intends to engage the People’s Bank of China during the upcoming World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings.
China is Ghana’s largest trading partner, as bilateral trade grew by 19.3 percent year on year to 14.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, according to the Chinese Embassy to Ghana.(Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
