Dr. Joseph France, the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) head of financial stability, has urged Ghanaians to report individuals and companies that publish their prices in dollars.
According to him, some companies—like mining and oil and gas companies—are permitted to deal with foreign currencies directly since they generate net foreign exchange earnings, while other companies are not.
He asserted that companies and individuals who price their items in dollars are in breach of the Foreign Exchange Act and must suffer penalties unless they get formal permission from the Bank of Ghana.
In order to take the necessary action, he has urged Ghanaians to report such firms to the police.
He said, “We flush out some of these when we get to know of them,” on JoyNews’ PM Express. Few institutions in our country deal in foreign exchange.
For instance, if you go to the oil and gas firms, which are net foreign exchange earners, you will find that although they are not authorized to trade, they are nevertheless allowed to do so because, like mining and oil and gas companies, they are net foreign exchange earners.
“Some limited institutions like some limited hotels and so on are permitted to deal in forex. It’s not everybody who is supposed to deal in forex for which you advertise. So when these things come to our attention, we go after such persons to make sure that they stop. So I put a challenge out there that once you get to know of somebody, we get reports and we act on them.
“So we tell the public that anybody who is pricing in dollars please report because it’s actually a crime to be pricing in dollars. The foreign exchange act makes it that. So you report to us and we’ll also report to the security agencies. Or report to the security agencies and the person will be stopped,” he said.
