GoldBod sells $125m to commercial banks in maiden FX auction

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has sold approximately US$125 million to commercial banks in its maiden foreign exchange auction under its new spot FX sales and intermediation framework.

The auction was conducted on Tuesday as part of efforts to strengthen transparency, fairness and regulatory compliance in the foreign exchange market.

The auction forms part of GoldBod’s plan to provide commercial banks with more predictable and transparent access to US dollars through its GoldBod GoFX platform.

GoldBod earlier announced plans to sell US$1 billion to commercial banks during the month to support stability in the foreign exchange market.

The GoldBod programme is expected to generate about US$1.5 billion in total.

Of this amount, US$1 billion will be sold to commercial banks, while the remaining US$500 million will be advanced to the Bank of Ghana to support the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves.

Under the new framework, GoldBod will conduct foreign exchange sales twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Participating banks will submit their requests during a designated sales window.

Where demand exceeds the available FX tranche, GoldBod said allocations will be made on a pro-rata basis to ensure a transparent and equitable distribution of the available foreign exchange.

Transactions will be settled on the same day.