Private remittances under reported

Records on private remittances in Ghana do not cover remittances sent through informal channels, Eric Koranteng of the Balance of Payments Division, Research Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has disclosed.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) estimates that the reported figures could represent about half the actual total.

Mr Korantengsaid this at the maiden First Atlantic Bank Executive Breakfast Meeting in Accra.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) under the theme: ‘Facilitating Foreign Direct Investments and Remittance flows into Ghana’.

“Much is transmitted through informal and unrecorded channels which make it impossible to measure the precise amount.

“We are still strategizing at Bank of Ghana on devising means to conduct survey to capture remittances sent through other means,” he noted.

Between 2010 and July 2014, he said about US$4,382.41 million of inward remittances came from USA and Canada.

This was followed by the United Kingdom which recorded about US$1,042.76 million, the European Union (US$824.40 million), others (US$650.28 million), ECOWAS (US$287.72 million) and the rest of Africa (US$109.21 million).

The major recipient sectors of FDI in 2013 were mining and quarrying (49.38 percent or GH¢1,028.14 million), finance and insurance (38.31 percent or GH¢797.69 million) and the wholesale and retail sector (7.43 percent or GH¢154.81 million).

FDI inflow increased from US$ 144.97 million in 2005 to US$3,227.0 million in 2013.

Gabriel Edgal, Managing Director of First Atlantic Bank, in a speech, said appreciable economic progress investment inflows into Ghana had increased considerably, adding that Ghana received the 5th highest FDI in Africa after Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa & DR Congo.

“Remittances to Africa from its Diaspora are now becoming one of the most important catalysts for local economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.”

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2012, remittances from the Diaspora became Africa’s largest external source of finance, surpassing official development aid and foreign investment.

Mawuena Trebarh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIPC, remarked that registered FDI inflows to Ghana from September 1994 to December 2013 stood at US$25,941,679,947 from 3,621 projects.