BoG warns businesses, individuals who charge in dollars

Following a recent publication of a photo showing a shop attendant accepting dollars in exchange for goods at a shop in Accra, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has moved to enforce the regulations that bar trading in foreign currencies in Ghana.

Officers from the BoG, led by the Head of Communications, Esi Hammond on Tuesday visited the said shop in the photo - Palace supermarket on the Spintex road - and concluded that shop attendants there were willing to accept foreign currencies in exchange for goods purchased at the shop.

Consequently, the BoG has reiterated its call on the public not to trade in foreign currencies in Ghana and insisted that it would punish any person who flout the Foreign Exchange Act.

During the market surveillance visit to the Palace supermarket on Wednesday, Esi Hammond indicated to the General Manager of the supermarket, Nana Kofi, that the BoG would be doing more surveillance to stop the practice.

She said the BoG has picked information that some schools and institutions have also been charging in dollars.

“It has come to our notice that a few shops, even schools and other institutions charge in dollars, so today we paid a visit to the Palace supermarket and we realized that some of them are willing to take dollars in exchange of goods you buy."

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”.