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| ‘Transact Business In Cedis Only’ |
10/21/2012 |
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Bank of Ghana (BoG) has warned individuals and companies to desist from unlicensed or unauthorized dealings in foreign currency.
According to BoG, anyone found to be involved in any such dealings would face sanctions and a possible jail term.
Currently, certain institutions and businesses continue to quote prices of goods and services in US dollars in defiance of the Central Bank’s directive.
In a recent notice, the Central Bank reiterated that under the current foreign exchange laws of the country, the Ghana cedi is the only legal tender in the country and therefore “no resident of Ghana other than those licensed by the Bank of Ghana shall price, advertise, receive or make payments in any other foreign currency.”
“These include currency for goods and service such as school fees, sale and rental of vehicles, real estates, airline tickets and domestic contracts.”
BoG said transacting business in any currency other than the Ghana Cedi violates Ghana’s Foreign Exchange Act.
Persons found to be engaging in such an act, according to the statement, would be fined not more than GH¢8,400.
As part of measures to address the ‘dollarization’ of the economy, the BoG directed commercial banks recently to keep nine percent of their reserves with it.
The directive succeeded in ridding commercial banks’ coffers of dollars.
The decline in the value of the cedi affected the ratings of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) this year by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).
SEC rated the performance of GSE ‘below average’, even though it noted that GSE performed better than its counterparts around the globe.
Yesterday, the Ghana Cedi traded 1.89 to the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank has asked banks in the country to continue accepting the old GH¢50 banknotes for exchange or deposit from the general public after authentication.
The directive follows the expiration of September 30 deadline after which the old GH¢50 note banknotes ceased to be legal tender subsequent to the introduction of the new GH¢50 notes.
The old GH¢50 banknotes were replaced with the upgraded GH¢50 banknotes introduced on August 21, 2012.
Source: Samuel Boadi/D-Guide
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