Ban dollar accounts; let’s trade in cedis only – Ayariga to BoG

The founder and leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, is calling on the governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to take a second look at its decision to allow customers to operate dollar accounts in the country.

According to Mr Ayariga, the opening of dollar accounts have over the years contributed to the depreciation of the Cedi to all the major currencies.

"Everybody who wants to do business outside the country must do it through the bank," he said.

"You can't open a dollar or euro account in the United Kingdom when their legal tender is the Pound Sterling and these are measures to cushion the Pound sterling from a free-fall.

"What is the rationale for having people operate dollar accounts when the legal tender is Cedi?" he queried.

Mr Ayariga made this call on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Mr Emmanuel Quarshie on Accra 100.5 FM on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.

He said allowing people to operate dollar accounts coupled with the free range black market for forex are parts of the problems leading to the rapid fall of the Cedi as well as the skyrocketing price of goods in the country.

He argued that the black forex market sometimes creates an artificial scarcity of dollars in the system by hoarding them.

"They do this to determine the value of the dollar against the cedis to profit from the system and yet BoG is not taking any actions against the perpetrators in the black market,” he bemoaned

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