Following continued discussions between the government and important stakeholders, the exchange rates have positively responded with an appreciation of the cedi, according to K. T. Dadzie, president of the Ghanaian Forex Bureau Association.
While the preceding three months of forex volatility have not been pleasant for forex operators, their clients, or the country as a whole, he claims that the cedi has strengthened greatly versus the dollar since the government’s active interventions.
According to him, this indicates that the situation in which the rates are out of control is not, in any way, the result of natural processes but rather the intentional actions of “people speculating and trying to make rainfall out of the position that we are in.”
Mr K.T Dadzie made this known when the leadership and members of the association met the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in an extended version of continuing engagements between the Association and the Bank of Ghana, to discuss the concerning behaviour and turbulence of the foreign exchange market.
According to President Akufo-Addo, at whose behest the meeting was occasioned, “the state of our currency and the turbulence in our foreign exchange market is a matter of notoriety now in Ghana and it’s a matter of very grave concern.”
He said, “the initial import for the creation of forex bureaux was at the time when the economy was opening up and liberalising. So, we had these forex bureaux, regulated by the Bank of Ghana; but which will make access to foreign exchange in a regulated and controlled manner easier.”
“This was necessary to curb trying to find a mechanism for putting an end to Black-Market operations in our currency,” he added.
“Unfortunately, somehow,” he continued, “these initial motivations for the Forex Bureau have still not materialised. The black market; you will hear public commentators, and the Bank of Ghana itself, that it is still driving both the supply as well as the rate of our foreign exchange transactions.”
The Forex Bureau Association pledged their commitment to support the government towards stabilising the rates and reducing drastically the influence of Black-Market activities within that space.