Closure Of Forex Bureaus: Owners May Lose Licences Forever – BoG

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said the two forex bureaus whose licences were revoked on Thursday (27 October) may not be allowed back into the forex market.

The BoG on Thursday revoked the licences of Airport City Forex Bureau within the Atlantic Tower Building and Trade House Forex Bureau at the Marina Mall in the Greater Accra Region

According to the BoG, the licences of the two firms were revoked following on-compliance with rules governing the operations of foreign exchange bureaus including a directive on customer identification and issuance of electronic receipts.

“About two months ago we did mystery shopping at these two forex bureaus and they were found not to be complying with the rules. We engage with them and they are recalcitrant and that is why yesterday (27 October), the Bank of Ghana revoked their licences.”

The head of the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the BoG, Yaw Sapong, spoke with Benjamin Offei-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (28 October).

Sarpong added, “Before licences are issued by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), we do what we call ‘fit and proper test’ and if you pass the test you may get the licence. In the case of these two bureaus because of what they have done over the years, I don’t think they will pass the ‘fit and proper test’ for them to be given licences to come back to business.”

He appealed to Ghanaians not to patronise the services of black market forex operated since their operations are illegal and added that the BoG will continue to clamp down on their operations.

Sarpong added, “I want to use this opportunity to tell Ghanaians that there are so many forex bureaus in the country. There are over 400 forex bureaus in Ghana.

“There’s no reason why you should deal with black market operators; these people are not licenced and they are operating illegally. If you patronise their services, you are committing an illegality. So let’s patronise the licenced forex bureaus across the country.”