Ghana’s persistent foreign exchange scarcity is beginning to bite harder, with the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG) warning that it is creating fertile ground for politically connected cartels to hijack the auctioning of goods at the country’s ports.
The Association argues that the dollar crunch is no longer just a financial headache for businesses but has become the root of a wider crisis, eroding confidence in the trading environment.
According to the group, importers are often unable to access dollars quickly enough to clear their shipments. This delay pushes goods onto the Uncleared Cargo List (UCL), where by law, traders are meant to enjoy a 60-day grace period before their consignments are auctioned. But IEAG says this window has been quietly reduced to just 21 days, a change that has opened the floodgates for exploitation by politically connected businessmen.
The shortened timeline, the Association contends, has become the perfect entry point for cartels that sweep in to acquire stranded cargo at cut-rate prices. Many of these auctions, it alleges, take place without proper gazetting or legal process.
Worse still, while importers lose their shipments and continue to pay heavy demurrage charges, the new owners of the goods reportedly walk away after paying little more than a service fee ranging between GH¢6,000 and GH¢10,000.
This situation, the IEAG warns, has triggered a chain of damaging consequences. At the business level, importers are seeing their hard-earned capital eroded, pushing many to the brink of collapse. At the national level, the state is losing badly needed revenue because auctions undervalue goods and bypass proper procedures. And at the investment level, Ghana’s reputation as a safe and fair trading hub is being undermined, discouraging both local and foreign investors.
To address the problem, the Association has tabled a set of urgent demands. It is calling for the restoration of the 60-day grace period on the UCL, the introduction of a first-time clearance option to cushion importers struggling with forex, and a full investigation by Customs and security agencies into what it describes as a “political cabal” profiteering from the auctions.
It is also urging the Bank of Ghana to step in by ensuring commercial banks make foreign exchange available at fair and transparent rates.
The IEAG says it may be forced to mount mass action if authorities fail to intervene swiftly.
