The Bank of Ghana is once again cautioning institutions, particularly those in the hospitality and the real estate sectors that do not have permission to price in foreign currencies to desist from doing that.

According to the Central Bank, it is illegal for them to quote their offerings in foreign currencies, and will thus not hesitate to punish them.

Speaking to Joy Business, the Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Yaw Sapong, said it will step up its monitoring activities to address the challenge.

“As I indicated earlier, the pricing in dollars, other currencies by institutions is engaging our attention and we have teams out there that identify some of these institutions for us to deal with them. I want to re-echo that it is illegal to price or advertise foreign currency unless you have permission from Bank of Ghana to do that”.

“There are a few institutions in the country that by the nature of their operations have been able to secure exceptions, other than that it is illegal to do that.

Mr. Sapong further said the Bank of Ghana will step up its monitoring activities to make sure that recalcitrant firms’ pricing in dollars are punished.

He however encouraged the general public to inform the Central Bank of any institution quoting its services in dollars.

“The ones that come to our attention, we will deal with them, but we need everybody on board, the media. So if anybody comes to your station wanting to advertise in dollars, you have to let the person know that this is illegal and you don't want to be associated with it.”

“We have to let the advertising agencies know that and we have. I am sure that if we all collaborate we can deal with this situation”, Mr. Sapong explained.