Ghana wants to conduct currency exchange business with Russia

According to TASS, Ghana is also negotiating the adoption of the Mir payment system.

Lawrence Awuku-Boateng, the head of the Ghana-Russia Business Development Council, told TASS on Monday that Ghana wants to utilise its own national currencies in its dealings with Russia and would even sign up for the latter’s Mir payment system.

According to reports, talks are in on to implement Mir cards in the second-most populated country in West Africa.

“The central banks of Ghana and the Russian Federation are working together, and we intend to settle commerce in national currencies via a Chinese bank. This significantly streamlines the procedure, according to Awuku-Boateng.

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The head of the business council responded to a query regarding the use of Mir cards in Ghana by saying: “We have asked the central bank of Ghana to open this window for us, but we are still negotiating.”

In reaction to Western sanctions, Moscow created the Mir payment system, which serves as Russia’s substitute for Visa and Mastercard. Since December 2015, more than 200 million Mir cards have been distributed by Russian banks.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) republics plus Cuba, which started accepting them in March, are among the 10 nations outside of Russia that presently accept Mir cards. An further 15 states have shown a desire to adopt Mir.

In comparison to the same period in 2022, trade volume between Russia and African nations climbed by 43.5% in the first eight months of 2023. Maksim Reshetnikov, the minister of economy of Russia, forecast that commerce with Africa will treble by 2030.