A communications specialist, Kathleen Addy is demanding that persons who contributed to the earlier measures introduced by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) aimed at sustaining the economy must be punished.
According to her, the revision of the measures by the central bank can be classified as a “call back of some sort” and so “heads must roll because somebody did the wrong thing.”
“Somebody must pay severely for dealing this fatal damaging blow to the economy,” she insisted.
The BoG in February instituted some measures to reduce the dollarization of the economy.
The new measures faced stiff opposition as some considered them as harsh and had the high possibility of further hurting the economy.
They called for a review of the measures and this call was recommended in the Senchi Consensus after the National Economic Forum.
The central bank subsequently announced a review of the measures and relaxed some of its Forex rules last Friday.
Speaking on Citi FM’s The Big Issue, Addy alleged that the harsh measures pushed businesses and individuals to open dollar accounts in neighbouring countries and also causing high patronage in the black market in Ghana.
“What I know for a fact is that people are now quietly going to neighbouring countries and opening their dollar accounts there…the financial institutions are bitterly complaining…the black market is booming,” she said.
She questioned why the managers of the economy did not foresee the dangers of the measures they instituted.
She recalled that opening up and formalization of Forex business in Ghana brought about a sharp decline in black market trading but the arbitrary reversal of the existing policy of Forex transactions has caused more harm than good.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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