Hotel operators urged to trade in Cedis

Dr Benjamin Amoah, Head of Financial Stability Unit at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has advised hotel operators to abide by the directives of the bank and desist from trading in foreign currencies.

Dr Amoah gave the advice when the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts on Tuesday held a consultative forum for hotel operators on the revised forex directives by the BoG in Accra.

He said per the new directives, all business transactions were to be advertised, invoiced and priced in the Ghana Cedi denomination but not in any foreign currency and that hotel operators were not exempted.

He said the directives, which were of international best practices, would help to ensure clarity and transparency in the financial sector as well as to streamline business activities.

“The BoG directives will also help to deliver price stability and low inflation which will help the economy to grow and also benefit fixed income earners,” he said.

Dr Amoah said the new measures by the central bank were not intended to stifle business and economic activities and must therefore be embraced by all.

He announced that the BoG had withdrawn the license of all hotels that were permitted to transact business in US dollars, and it was imperative that they respected the directive.

Some hotel operators were however not happy by the new measures as they complained of the difficulties involved in getting a forex bureau at night to change foreign currencies into Ghana Cedis, especially for customers who arrived from abroad at midnight.

Dr Amoah however, advised them to apply for forex bureau licence to enable them to solve that problem.

He said there was no risk involved in charging cedis for any business transaction and commended Samsung Electronics for doing its business in the Ghana cedi denomination.

“Even though Samsung Electronics is a foreign company they sell all their products in cedis and are making strides and it is an indication that there is no risk of doing any business in the cedi denomination,” he added.

Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts urged hotel operators to abide by the BoG directive as the appreciation of the cedi against other foreign currencies would be in their interest.

She said some hotels which hitherto were charging in US dollars had started charging in cedis and urged others to emulate.