legislation governing credit delivery and also seeks to promote a secured transactions regime ( str ) with defined legal framework for credit, improved standards of disclosure, transparency and speedy enforcement mechanisms. mr. chairman, an important organ to be established by act 773 to facilitate the achievement of these objectives was the collateral registry. soon after the passage of the act in december 2008, the bank, commenced activities towards establishing a collateral registry. on the 1st of february 2010, the bank established a functional semi - automated collateral registry. in line with international best practices, the registry is to provide services such as : bis central bankers ’ speeches • registration of charges and collaterals. • provision of avenues for lending institutions and the general public to conduct searches on registered charges and collaterals. • assisting in speeding up realisation of collaterals upon default by a borrower. • effecting discharges of registered charges and collaterals upon application by the lender or the registrant and • renewal of registration. following its establishment, the bank moved a step further and collaborated with the international finance corporation ( ifc ) which also seeks to promote access to credit in africa, to upgrade ghana ’ s collateral registry to an international standard secured transactions registry. the project with ifc involved upgrading of the systems, processes and the underlying legal and regulatory framework of the ghana collateral registry to a standard which would be comparable globally. the swiss state secretariat for economic affairs [ seco ] provided a grant to enable ifc with local support from the bank of ghana, implement the project. this included a legal review component which resulted in the issuance of rules for effective implementation of act 773 and amendments to the act. also, a web - based registry system has been developed and was rolled out, on 25th june 2012, ensuring full - automation and global access to the services of the registry. in the area of capacity building and public awareness, the project has undertaken several training programs for financial institutions on the web - based collateral registry system. also, seminars have been held for lawyers, law firms, commercial court judges and respective associations on the provisions of act 773, and the operating rules of the registry. mr. chairman, let me say that within three years of operation, the registry has performed remarkably. by the end of march 2013, a total of 49, 096 charges ( secured loans ) with 104, 308 collaterals had been registered. of these, 80. 6 per cent were movable assets, 13. 3 per cent were

immovable assets and the rest consisted of both movable and immovable types. almost 160 institutions ( both local and foreign ) have so far accessed the registry for registration. there have also been 14, 608 searches conducted by various lending institutions, law firms and the general public. since its inception, the registry has attracted significant interest from sister central banks on the continent. delegations from several african countries have visited the registry to study the processes involved in its establishment and the redesign project. mr. chairman, despite this impressive performance, there are a few challenges which the bank has to deal with to ensure that the full benefits of secure transactions regime benefit the economy. the most important of these which requires immediate policy focus is the problem of duplication of registration and disjointed records associated with the absence of harmonization between the collateral registry and other registries such as the company ’ s registry, the lands commission and the driver and vehicle licensing authority ( dvla ). mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, it is appropriate for me at this juncture to acknowledge the immense contributions of seco and the ifc in the redesign of the collateral registry and hope that the collaborative efforts will continue even after the project has ended. i will express our appreciation to the lending institutions, ghana bar association, the judiciary and other state agencies and stakeholders for their support in this effort to upgrade ghana collateral registry to an international secured transactions registry. bis central bankers ’ speeches on its part the bank of ghana will continue to pursue policies aimed at achieving its objective of price stability as well as ensuring orderliness in the foreign exchange market. our inflation target for 2013 which is in line with the broader macroeconomic targets ( including the budget deficit of 9. 0 per cent, real gdp growth of 8. 0 per cent including oil or 6. 5 per cent excluding oil and a broadly stable exchange rate ) remains at 9. 0 per cent. recent trends in inflation inflation rose from 8. 8 per cent at the end of 2012 to 10. 4 per cent in march 2013. this is consistent with the bank ’ s projections as the increases in february and to a lesser extent in march reflected the effects of the recent upward adjustment in petroleum prices in february as well as seasonality of food prices. we expect the upward trend to work itself out by the end of the first half of the year and then decline towards the end year target. exchange rate developments recent trends in the exchange rate also reflect seasonality in the demand and