Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has disclosed that the country lost more than GH¢31 billion between April 2020 and August 2025 through Import Declaration Forms (IDFs) that had no corresponding imports.
He described the revelations as alarming, warning that such financial leakages continue to drain the country’s reserves and undermine economic stability.
Presenting the 2026 Fiscal Budget to Parliament on Thursday, November 13, 2025, Dr Forson noted that Ghana processed 525,814 foreign-exchange transactions during the five-year period, amounting to approximately GH¢83 billion.
However, only 10,440 of those transactions could be verified against actual imports.
“Between April 2020 and August 2025, over 525,000 transactions amounting to an equivalent of $83 billion were processed through ICOPS. But only 10,440 of these transactions were linked to actual imports,” he told lawmakers.
The minister explained that this discrepancy left an equivalent of $31 billion transferred abroad without any documentary evidence of goods entering Ghana.
He lamented that such practices not only weaken the cedi but also deprive the economy of resources that could have been invested in critical infrastructure.
“These leaks bleed our reserves, weaken the Ghana cedi, and deprive the economy of resources that should have been used to build schools, roads and hospitals,” Dr Forson said.
The minister stated there there will be tighter monitoring of foreign-exchange transactions and stricter enforcement of import verification systems at the ports.
The move is to seal all leakages at the ports.
SA/EB
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