The Ghana Gold Board sold US$255 million to commercial banks in the first two operations of its GoFX platform, launched in early October to make access to foreign currency more predictable and support market liquidity.

The first sale, held on Tuesday 6 October, covered about US$125 million. GoldBod had then confirmed that the transaction inaugurated its new spot sales scheme. A second tranche of US$130 million was sold on Thursday 8 October at a uniform rate of 11.77 cedis to the dollar, according to information published on Monday 12 October by Joy Business.

Banks do not submit competing rates as in an auction. They present their requirements within a set window, and amounts are allocated pro rata when demand exceeds the available tranche. Institutions must also certify that their requests match genuine client needs or a foreign exchange position to be covered.

Settlement takes place the same day, under the supervision of the Bank of Ghana, which has real-time access to the platform. For importing businesses, the mechanism aims to improve dollar availability within the banking system and reduce uncertainty at a time when year-end purchases traditionally increase demand for foreign currency.

GoldBod normally holds two sales each week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The agency had generated US$1.871 billion from artisanal and small-scale gold trading in September. Of that amount, US$701.3 million had been sold to banks and US$1.17 billion made available to the central bank to bolster reserves.

For October, the foreign currency generation target was set at US$1.5 billion. GoldBod plans to direct US$1 billion to commercial banks and up to US$500 million towards reserve accumulation, as part of sales of foreign currency from its gold operations, authorised and supervised by the Bank of Ghana.

This activity leaves the central bank responsible for the foreign exchange market. In remarks gathered in Bangkok and published on 15 October by Joy Business, its governor, Johnson Asiama, said the institution remained ready to intervene against excessive volatility. Before Parliament on 13 October, GoldBod's chief executive, Sammy Gyamfi, had explained that the agency sells currency derived from gold, without buying and reselling currencies.