The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison has told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that activities of illegal forex trading have reduced in the country.
According to the Governor, the shortage of foreign exchange which gives rise to the activities of illegal forex trading, also known as the Black Market, is not prevalent.
He attributed this to the government’s better management of the economy.
Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee today, June 24, 2020, Dr. Addison said, the Central bank is collaborating with the security agencies to totally deal with the problem of illegal forex trading.
“The black market is an illegal activity and the Bank of Ghana has collaborated with the security agencies to ensure that they don’t thrive and we have had a few exercises in different parts of the country literally going out there to arrest black market traders and foreign exchange.”
“It is an illegal activity and the security agencies are on top of that issue. I think the pressure in terms of the prevalence of black market activities has gone down and the reason is that the economy is relatively doing well and there is no big shortage and therefore the incentive too isn’t there. This is an illegal market and you are not going to completely wipe it away. From time to time we are cooperating with the security agencies to enforce the law,” he said.
The PAC on Monday issued a statement threatening to cause the arrest of Mr. Addison if he fails to appear before it.
The Public Accounts Committee yesterday, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, expressed its unhappiness with the BoG Governor for failing to appear before it after several invitations.
The Public Accounts Committee deferred its sitting on Tuesday over the absence of Dr. Ernest Addison.