BoG not providing realistic foreign exchange rates – Alex Mould alleges

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Alex Mould has accused the Bank of Ghana’s leadership of not providing realistic foreign exchange rates.

According to him, the BoG must take some of the blame for the persistent hikes in petroleum products by the Oil Marketing Companies and Bulk Oil Distributors.

Making his submission on Citi TV's Big Issue segment on Saturday, November 5, Alex Mould also accused the Central Bank of refusing to provide OMCs and BDCs with accurate foreign exchange figures.

He further opined that the Bank of Ghana is being dishonest in its publication of daily foreign exchange rates for interbank trading activity.

“The price build-up we see today, I am told some of the BDCs use between GH¢ 18-GH¢19 per a dollar as exchange rate, and that is why you are getting a price of GH¢23.49 per a litre of diesel. The market rate was about GH¢14 per dollar, and this is the commercial rate. Nobody uses the BoG rate,” he is quoted by Citinewsroom.com

“BoG rate I don’t know what type of rate it is, because it is not the rate the banks trade with themselves or trade with their customers. BoG needs to be more proactive and give us realistic and practical rates and stop fooling the people of Ghana that, this is the exchange rate of the market. Everybody knows that nobody uses the BoG exchange rates,” he stressed.

Alex Mould also said the BoG must address the situation where some commercial banks do not go by the central bank's rate when dealing with customers.

Touching further on the fuel price hikes, Alex Mould urged for structural solutions to address problems in the exchange rate market.

“The challenge is that these BDCs don’t know where they are going to get forex from, and two, they don’t know what the price will be. There’s a structural problem in the market and I think it needs to be addressed,” he noted.

MA/FNOQ

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