Remittances acting as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had been increasing at a faster rate, compared to imports and exports, in west Africa Ghana, said its head of state on Thursday.

Ghana News Agency quoted the Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor as saying that private remittances to the country averaged 202 million U.S. dollars per annum in the 1990s, and rose to one billion U.S. dollars in 2000, and 1.55 billion dollars in 2005.

The figures expressed as a percentage of GDP indicated an increase from 2.24 per cent in 1990 to almost 14.4 per cent in 2005, and as a percentage of exports, rising from 22 per cent to 57 per cent within the same period, the president said when delivering a speech at a two-day regional forum held here on Remittances and Trade for West Africa.

The forum brought together participants from within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to review proposed initiatives and reforms aimed at enabling the private sector to harness regional remittances and trade settlements for the benefit of citizens.

The president noted that the role that remittances are playing in growth and development had not been paid much attention till recently.

"Collecting data on remittance flows in Africa has been problematic," he said. "This is because remittances through informal channels are not captured in the statistics and are, therefore, not reported."

Source: Xinhua