A minority Member of Parliament (MP) has threatened legal action against the Bank of Ghana (BoG) if it fails to reverse some of the measures it has put in place to save the cedi from further depreciation.
The BoG last week instituted new measures and actions to arrest the further depreciation of the cedi and bring a possible end to the “dollarization” of the economy.
The new directives were however received with mixed reactions from sections of the public with some suggesting other possible means should be sought to address the depreciation of the Ghanaian currency.
Cabinet after deliberations with the Governor of the BoG on Monday endorsed the new directives but urged the Central Bank to give further clarification on the matter for better understanding by the public.
But the MP for Abetifi, Peter Wiafe Peprah is of the opinion that government is not being up-front with persons who have foreign accounts in the country stating that ‘the constitution says that no law shall be made which takes retrospective effects and therefore I call on the Bank of Ghana to reverse its position on some of the rather draconian measures it announced last week.’
He threatened that if his call is not heeded, ‘I will definitely seek legal advice and lawyer will be contacted to see if they can reverse some of the measures through the court system.’
In an interview on an Accra based radio station, Joy FM, Mr. Peprah, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Trade and Industry pointed out that the BoG has not been truthful to investors with its new rules.
‘Millions of dollars have been lured into the country into Foreign Currency Accounts with the express guarantee that those funds which can only be sourced from abroad could be repatriated without any documentation whatsoever. The measures introduced last week basically said that to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3; ‘I lied’. That is what they are saying,’ he explained.
He also noted that investor confidence in Ghana will wane with the new directives.
Meanwhile, a senior lecturer in banking law, Moses Foh Amoaning is of the opinion that ‘it will be very difficult for him to win on the retroactivity line because the Bank of Ghana certainly, clearly by Article 183 has the power to regulate and maintain the stability of the currency of Ghana.’
He however suggested that it will be better if Mr. Peprah and his lawyers rather look at ‘whether these particular measures that they have taken are in consonance with the promotion of the economic growth of this.’
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