Nana Kwabena Dwomoh Sarpong, businessman and environmentalist, has waded in the public discourse of 'dollarization' in the country, accusing certain banks of ripping off their customers.
According to him, some of the banks, instead of helping the Bank of Ghana to succeed with various directives, are milking customers dry.
Nana Dwomoh, in an interview with The Enquirer last Friday, said that the recent posturing of some of the banks indicates clearly that they are not making the Bank of Ghana directives work.
�Customers deposit dollars at various banks and when they go back to demand their dollars they are given cedis at cheaper rates,� he said. He said: �The banks tell you that because of the Bank of Ghana directives they do not have the very dollars customers have deposited with them.�
According to Nana Dwomoh, the banks clandestinely send the dollars customers deposit with them to the operators of forex bureaus to be sold at high rates.
He told The Enquirer that people receiving wire transfer in dollars are forced to take cedis and when they go out to change it they incur serious losses.
�The recent developments as they pertain in the banks will definitely force people to send their money outside Ghana and that will not be good for businesses to thrive,� he said.
�The banks should be able to tell customers where they took the dollars they deposited and stop hiding under the Bank of Ghana directives to fleece customers,' he said.
Nana Dwomoh, known his careful analysis of national issues, said that the current trend by the banks was just too much punishment for the customers.
�This is voodoo banking and that is suffocating the private sector, as the banks are just seeking profit agenda at the expense of the customers,� he added. He said: �The banks are just creating bad name for the Bank of Ghana as they always shift blame towards the Bank of Ghana.�
�It will be very crucial for the Bank of Ghana to give the banks dollar buying rate as they are now doing what they feel is good for them,� he said.
Nana Dwomeh, who sounded worried throughout the interview, said that it was incumbent on the Bank of Ghana to check the activities of the Bank of Ghana in connection with the whole dollarization syndrome.
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