BoG Governor commended for clamping down on illegal forex dealers

The Association of Forex Bureau Operators has commended the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison for his  role in clamping down on illegal forex dealers also known as “Black Market” in a move to sanitise the sector.

The association indicated that their outfit was aware of the numerous measures being executed to flush out the illegal foreign exchange dealers.

They cited the recent operation in some parts of the Accra, which saw the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Police Service collaborate to arrest  about 160  black market operators.

The Association pledged their support in the fight against the illegal operators.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG), on Tuesday, 25th October 2022, met with stakeholders within the foreign exchange market, including the Managing Directors of the universal banks in the country and the Association of Forex Bureau Operators to deliberate on measures to streamline, sanitise and provide clarity on the supply of forex in the country.

In his opening remarks, the Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, acknowledged that though the global economic meltdown occasioned by the geo-political tension between Russia and Ukraine had caused supply-demand imbalances in several commodity markets, high inflation, high-cost of living and high uncertainties in financial markets, the BoG was poised to work with relevant stakeholders to stabilise the foreign exchange market and help contain the fall in value of the cedi.

“Available data indicate that we started the year GH¢6 to the dollar. It got to GH¢7 and we stayed at GH¢7 in June, GH¢7.6 in July, GH¢8 in August, GH¢9.6 in September and now it is GH¢12.5. But we are here again with people sending messages that the dollar-cedi rate is GH¢15 to a dollar.

“Clearly, this type of movement does not reflect changes in the fundamentals. It is clear that the market is not functioning properly. We are seeing speculations taking over under very disorderly market conditions and it appears now the black market is rather driving exchange rates. This we cannot allow to continue,” he said.

This, Dr Addison assured the leadership that, the BoG was taking steps to restore order in the forex market by making sure the interbank market took full control of the forex market to enforce regulations surrounding forex trading so as to streamline the supply of forex in the country.

The Governor charged the association to be law compliant and cautioned them to desist from determining forex rates which had contributed to the speculation of rates, thus creating unnecessary panic in the market, contributing to the rapid depreciation of the local currency.

The Association of Forex Bureau Operators was led by the President of the Forex Bureau Association of Ghana, K. T. Dadzie.

Source: 3news