Mr. Yaw Sapong, the Head of the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has noted that the forex bureaus whose licences were revoked may not be allowed back into the forex market.

According to the Head of the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the Bank of Ghana, the licences of the firms were revoked following their non-compliance with rules governing the operations of foreign exchange bureaus including a directive on customer identification and issuance of electronic receipts.

“About two months ago we did mystery shopping at these two forex bureaus and they were found not to be complying with the rules. We engage with them and they are recalcitrant and that is why the Bank of Ghana revoked their licences.”
Mr. Yaw Sapong

Mr. Yaw Sapong educated the public saying “Before licences are issued by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), we do what we call ‘fit and proper test’ and if you pass the test you may get the licence”.

“In the case of these two bureaus because of what they have done over the years, I don’t think they will pass the ‘fit and proper test’ for them to be given licences to come back to business.”
Mr. Yaw Sapong

Black Market Operations Are Illegal

Mr. Sarpong, meanwhile, appealed to Ghanaians not to patronise the services of black market forex operators since their operations are illegal. He served notice that the Bank of Ghana will continue to clamp down on their operations.

“I want to use this opportunity to tell Ghanaians that there are so many forex bureaus in the country. There are over 400 forex bureaus in Ghana.

“There’s no reason why you should deal with black market operators; these people are not licenced and they are operating illegally. If you patronise their services, you are committing an illegality. So let’s patronise the licenced forex bureaus across the country.”
Mr. Yaw Sapong

It can be recalled that just this week, the Bank of Ghana revoked licences of Airport City Forex Bureau within the Atlantic Tower Building and Trade House Forex Bureau at the Marina Mall in the Greater Accra region.

According to the BoG, the closure of these forex bureaus follows failure by the operators to desist from issuing receipts as well as breaching the foreign exchange laws.

The Central Bank explained that the exercise was targeted at ensuring sanity in the forex market and is expected to continue across the capital city, Accra in the Greater Accra region.

“These two forex bureaus are under the same ownership and if you could remember few weeks ago we issued warning to them. They have been found not complying with the foreign exchange laws.”
BoG

However, some market watchers believe the move by the Central Bank is as a result of the fast depreciation of the cedi in which the regulator has blamed on the forex operators.