The National Bank of Ethiopia raises premium paid on purchasing price of gold. It is a move targeted at boosting exports of gold through legal channel.
On the top of the international market price, suppliers will get a premium of 35 percent, an increase from 29 percent, according to Fikadu Digafe, vice governor and chief economist of the central bank.
The incentive will be paid based on flat rate. This will reverse the existing practice whereby gold suppliers are paid based on the volume of gold they supply to the Bank.
“The incentive will be flat, similar for quantity of gold supplied starting from the minimum 50 gram. Until now, they were getting higher premium if they supply higher volume of gold,” Fikadu added.
Next to coffee, gold is the second top export item of Ethiopia. It brought 513 million dollars in export proceed during the last 10 months.