Bank of Ghana to sanction entities charging and accepting payments in dollars

The BoG’s comment is coming at a time where an image of a shop attendant at Palace Hypermarket on the Spintex Road in Accra accepting dollars for payment from a customer for products bought.

To address this issue a team from the BoG led by the Head of Communications, Esi Hammond, visited Palace Hypermarket where it met and engage the management of the entity.

“We support our stakeholders to alert them about the need to observe the rules and regulations of the land particularly with respect to the Foreign Exchange Act which prohibits pricing in any other currency apart from the Ghana cedi.”

“It has come to our notice that a few shops, schools and other institutions are charging in dollars. So, today we paid a visit to the Palace Mall and initially did a few shopping around to see what happens here. We realized that some shops are willing to take dollars as payment for goods purchased. So we had to engage them and let them know that this contravenes the Foreign Exchange Act,” Ms. Hammond added.

The surveillance team visited other shops including one unlicensed forex bureau.

The BoG officials questioned the General Manager of the facility, Nana Kofi, who said that despite the inscription as forex bureau, they operate as a travel and tour agency.

The team directed that the forex bureau inscription be taken off. They asked the management to apply for a license if they wish to operate a forex bureau business.