Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Geology, Moussa Magassouba, has required mining companies to repatriate at least 50% of their export revenues to the country. This requirement is based on articles 184 and 185 of Guinea’s mining code. “All exporting companies will be required to file export declarations with the relevant departments of the Descriptive Export Declaration (Déclaration Descriptive d’Exportation – DDE), the Descriptive import declaration (Déclaration descriptive d’importation – DDI) and the Foreign trade single window (Guichet unique de commerce extérieur – GUCE),” said Karamo Kaba, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea.
He explains that these companies have 90 days to repatriate the value of at least 50% of the foreign currency of the products exported via their bank accounts: “The primary banks, which are under the supervision of the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea, must ensure that these foreign currency repatriations are effective and, above all, inform the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea via a reporting system”, he explains. This measure has been in force since 1 September 2023.
Regarding the reason for this decision, he reminded International Radio France (Radio France Internationale – RFI) that the government had only asked for at least 50% of the revenue to be repatriated, whereas the law provides for 100%. For him, this is nothing new; it is simply the application of the law.
As for the recovery of this revenue, the Governor replied: “At the Central Bank of Guinea, we have set up a commission to recover the sums to be repatriated. We’re going to levy a penalty on anyone who doesn’t do their job, and it’s up to them to pass that on to the customer if they want to”.
For the Governor, the aim is to reduce the poverty rate in Guinea, which is too high, despite the fact that the country has mines and plenty of potential. By enabling greater diversification of the economy, these import revenues will stimulate job creation in the tourism and agriculture sectors.
In addition, he believes that this should improve the standard of living of the population because having a lot of foreign currency at the central bank will help the Guinean franc appreciate. “This will act as a sort of anti-inflation shield for the Guinean population, which will be good for purchasing power,” the central bank governor concluded. Mining production accounts for 90% of Guinea’s exports.
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