Days after a publication of an image showing an attendant at Palace Hypermarket on the Spintex Road in Accra accepting dollars for payment from a customer for goods purchased, the Bank of Ghana has moved to enforce the regulations that bar trading in foreign currencies in Ghana.
The Bank of Ghana says it will not hesitate to punish businesses and persons who flout the Foreign Exchange Act by pricing and taking payments for goods and services in any currency apart from the Ghana cedi.
A team from the Central bank led by Esi Hammond, Head of Communications, in a market surveillance on Wednesday, visited the premises of Palace Hypermarket where it met engaged management of the shop.
“We support our stakeholders to alert them about the need to observe the rules and regulations of the land particularly with respect to the Foreign Exchange Act which prohibits pricing in any other currency apart from the Ghana cedi.”
“It has come to our notice that a few shops, schools and other institutions are charging in dollars. So, today we paid a visit to the Palace Mall and initially did a few shopping around to see what happens here. We realized that some shops are willing to take dollars as payment for goods purchased. So we had to engage them and let them know that this contravenes the Foreign Exchange Act,” Ms. Hammond said.
She added that some persons claim they were not aware of the law, but that is not an excuse, saying the law will take its course on anybody who flouts it.
“And so we sat with them and made them know that it contradicts the [Foreign] Exchange Act, we will be going round, it is going to be continuous, we will do it in various institutions. Some of them say they are not aware of the rules. This is not right, and so the law will take its course. We need to deal only in our local currency, the cedi and not any other currency. It is against the laws of our land”.
The team from Bank of Ghana visited other shops including one that had the inscription of a forex bureau, but did not have the license to operate as such.
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The Bank of Ghana officials interrogated the General Manager of the facility, Nana Kofi, who insisted that despite the inscription, there is no forex bureau operating at the premises but rather a travel and tour agency.
The central bank’s team directed that the inscription be taken off and for the management to apply for a license to operate a forex bureau if they intend to carry out such a business.
