The Bank of Ghana (BoG), has reassured Ghanaians and the business community of their commitment to stabilize the cedi from the sharp fall against the US dollar.
Ghana’s cedi has declined in value relative to the major trading currencies in recent times, with a depreciation of 14% against the US dollar this year, partly due to shortages in the availability of foreign exchange, or forex.
However, in a BoG’s Monetary Policy Committee Press Release on Monday, May 27, it stated that it has enough foreign exchange reserves to support the market, urging economic agents to desist from speculative purchases.
“The Bank of Ghana remains fully committed to providing stability in the exchange rate for the cedi. The Bank has enough foreign exchange reserves to support the market and economic agents should stop engaging in speculative purchases as they will suffer economic losses when the correction occurs,” the BoG stressed.
Meanwhile, the BoG has said it is taking steps to ensure sanity in the foreign exchange market which include working with the Ghana Association of Banks to streamline documentation of requirements for foreign payments to minimize the incentives to resort to the informal markets.
“To deal with the high demand pressures on the foreign exchange market, the Bank has taken steps in the past few weeks to directly absorb foreign exchange needs of some corporate institutions, and this has led to a reduced pipeline demand for foreign exchange from the commercial banks. The Bank is fully aware of the operations of illegal operators in the foreign exchange market and is working with the Financial Intelligence Centre to sanitise the foreign exchange market. Foreign exchange bureaux monitoring will be stepped up to ensure compliance with their regulatory framework,” it added.
