{"id":1236548,"date":"2022-10-27T17:42:37","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T17:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/27\/bog-revokes-licences-of-two-forex-bureaux-in-accra-for-non-compliance\/"},"modified":"2022-10-27T17:42:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T17:42:37","slug":"bog-revokes-licences-of-two-forex-bureaux-in-accra-for-non-compliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/27\/bog-revokes-licences-of-two-forex-bureaux-in-accra-for-non-compliance\/","title":{"rendered":"BoG revokes licences of two Forex bureaux in Accra for non compliance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"524\"  alt=\"\" title=\"forexxxxx\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/forexxxxx-696x524.png\" data- class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image lazyload\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"524\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/forexxxxx-696x524.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"forexxxxx\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revoked the licenses of two Forex bureaux located in Accra.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The two Forex bureaux which belong to the same person, allegedly failed to comply with the Foreign Exchange Act, the Central Bank said.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the press in Accra on Thursday October 27, Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the BoG, Yaw Sarpong said \u201cThe Bank of Ghana today has decided to revoke the license of airport City Forex \u00a0bureaux and Trade House Forex bureaux.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese two Forex bureaux. are under the same ownership. A few weeks ago we undertook a mystery shopping\u00a0 and they were found not to be complying with the Foreign Exchange Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This development comes at a time concerns have been raised the activities of black market operators.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addothe activities of these illegal operators defeat the purpose of the creation of Forex bureaux.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Akufo-Addo said these at a meeting with the leadership of the Forex Bureau Association of Ghana at the Jubilee House in Accra on Wednesday October 26.<\/p>\n<p>He said \u201cThe state of our currency, determinant in our foreign exchange market is some\u00a0 a matter of notoriety\u00a0 now in Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is matter of very grave concern. We have been having a lot of discussions with the governor, the regulator, and I have also asked you to come and give us a flavour of what that he has been telling you\u00a0 and what we conceive out to be the problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing that I thing it is very important for us\u00a0 to address, the initial\u00a0 import, my understanding, for the creation of the Forex bureaux was at the time\u00a0 when our economy was opening up and liberalizing, trying to find a mechanism for putting\u00a0 an end to black market\u00a0 operations on our currency, that was the initial import so we had these Forex bureaux regulated by the Bank of Ghana\u00a0 but which will make\u00a0 access to foreign exchange in the regulated, controlled manner easier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, somehow these initial motivation for the creation of the forex bureaux have still not materialized, the black market and you hear public commentators and the BoG itself and others saying there is still the black market that is basically driving both the supply as well as the rate of our foreign exchange transactions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"ctaText\">READ ALSO:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<span class=\"postTitle\">Akufo-Addo gov\u2019t erred in $2.25bn bond issuance, impeding investigations \u2013 Group<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThat is for me, completely unacceptable, we have to find a way to work together to drive the black market out of business so that the formal sector, in terms of the banks, Forex bureaux.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forex bureaux operators have been lamenting the stiff parallel competition they are facing with illegal operators popularly known as black market.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President of Forex Beurau Association of Ghana, Dr Alex Akpabli said on the New Day\u00a0 show with Roland Walker on TV3 Friday October 21 that the activities of the black marketers pose a serious challenge to them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the parallel market that competes with us, the black market, that is the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you need Dollar come to us and we can help but if you choose black market which is not safe then there is a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President of the\u00a0Ghana Union of Traders Association\u00a0(GUTA) Dr Joseph Obeng also indicated that there is a powerful association behind black market operations in Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that these operators mostly receive up to date forex information that sometimes the regulated operators do not even have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is giving them this information?\u201d He asked also on the New Day show.<\/p>\n<p>He added \u201cthere is a cartel which is being built by black market, it is dangerous. Who is giving them the rate, it is a cartel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are shying away from the main stream banks and and doing businesses with the Black markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bank of Ghana (BoG), together with the Ghana Police Service, on Tuesday \u00a020<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0September 2022, conducted a special operation on foreign exchange (forex) parallel market operators (otherwise known as black market operators) at identified hot spots within \u00a0Business District (Rawlings Park, Tudu, Cowlane, Circle, Kimbu, Timber Market and Lava) and throughout the country.<\/p>\n<p>In all about 76perpetrators were apprehended by the police for prosecution. The special operation will continue nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the operation was to clamp down on individuals and entities engaging in the business of buying and selling foreign exchange without a licence from Bank of Ghana in violation of Ghana\u2019s foreign exchange laws and regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Journalists after exercise, the Head of the Foreign Exchange \u00a0Bureau Examinations Office, at the Bank of Ghana, Adjoa Konadu Torto, indicated that the exercise will continue in other parts of the country in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>She maintained that members of the public who patronise the activities of \u2018Black Market\u201d operators are equally guilty before the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe over 76 perpetrators were apprehended by the police for prosecution. The special operation will continue nationwide\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of the operation was to clamp down on individuals and entities engaging in the business of buying and selling foreign exchange without a licence from Bank of Ghana in violation of Ghana\u2019s foreign Exchange Laws and regulations\u201d, she explained.<\/p>\n<p>She cautioned the general public to desist from engaging in illegal foreign exchange business without a licence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe general public must always trade with the Bank of Ghana licensed foreign exchange (forex) bureaux. Accordingly, the Anti-Money Laundering ACT, 2020 (Act 1044) as amended instructs all bureau customers to insist on their electronic receipts by providing the acceptable valid ID, the Ghana Card, to cover the buying and selling of all foreign currencies\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revoked the licenses of two Forex bureaux located in Accra. The two Forex bureaux which belong to the same person, allegedly failed to comply with the Foreign Exchange Act, the Central Bank said. Addressing the press in Accra on Thursday October 27, Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1236550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[813,1084,6028,15957,6029,13864,1658],"class_list":["post-1236548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-accra","tag-bog","tag-bureaux","tag-compliance","tag-forex","tag-licences","tag-revokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1236548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1236548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1236548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1236548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}