Stop dollarisation of the economy, say bankers

More players in the banking sector have added their voice to the call for managers of the economy to institute measures to halt quotation of goods and services in dollars.

This call has been necessitated by the sharp decline in the cedis's value against the dollar last year.

Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Alhassan Andani, told Joy Business everything must be done to discourage the use of dollars in the country as the medium of exchange.

“Any country that takes its economy seriously defends their currency, but in Ghana everybody wants to use the dollar. So how do you expect macro-economic monetary policy to work?” he demanded.

Last year, Bank of Ghana chided banks for their role in encouraging the dollarisation of the economy, saying they violate the country’s laws on foreign exchange transactions.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Kofi Wampah, who was then a deputy Governor said the violations include banks crediting the foreign exchange accounts of customers with proceeds from private sector exports and use them for investments and transactions abroad (externalisation), without documentation of such proceeds.