Dr. Joseph France, the director of financial stability at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has urged Ghanaians to report people and businesses who list their prices in dollars.
He claims that while some businesses—such as mining and oil and gas firms—are allowed to deal with foreign currencies directly because they are net foreign exchange earners, other businesses are not.
Without express authorization from the Bank of Ghana, he claimed, businesses and individuals who price their goods in dollars are in violation of the Foreign Exchange Act and must face consequences.
He has thus charged Ghanaians to report such companies to the police for the right actions to be taken.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said, “We flush out some of these when we get to know of them. We have limited institutions that deal in forex. For instance, when you go to the oil and gas companies, I mean, net foreign exchange earners, they’re not licensed to deal but they’re permitted to deal in forex because they’re net forex earners, like the mining companies, the oil and gas companies.
“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.
More stories
