GREDA appeals to BoG to engage members on quotation of prices in dollars
The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) is appealing to the Bank of Ghana to engage them in designing a workable plan to enable them quote prices of some services in dollars to avoid losses.
GREDA’s comment follows directives by the Bank of Ghana that businesses in the country should desist from pricing, advertising, receipting and or making payments for goods and services in foreign currency, particularly the US dollar.
According to the Executive Secretary of GREDA, Samuel Amegayibor, although they are not against the directive and will abide by it, the unstable price regime in the country will make it difficult for its members to avoid losses.
‘’We need to work towards stabilizing the currency naturally so that all these things will not come in the first place, that is the way I see it, because it’s difficult when you’re building a project and you start with a price and you finish with the same price, and this has brought so much confusion between clients and people who have for instance signed out mortgages.
“We are facing challenges working with some of such clients, there are projects that have been secured and fully awarded to people and then you get shocked with all these high increment and high prices of materials, it throws the project out of balance, and it has brought a lot of problems, in fact as I speak to you now, there is a lot of projects going on and some have actually been put on complete hold,” Mr Amegayibor said.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana’s caution against the dealing, pricing, advertising, receipting and or making payments in foreign exchange is in pursuant to the Foreign Exchange Act, 2006 (Act 723).
In a notice issued by the Central Bank on April 5, 2022, [the third notice issued so far] the apex bank asserts the Cedi is the sole legal tender acceptable in the country.
“The General Public is hereby notified that the sole legal tender in Ghana is the Ghana Cedi,” stated the BoG.
Known as dollarisation, the phenomenon contributes to the depreciation of the local currency.
The Central Bank also cautioned the general public and businesses against dealing in illegal forex activities (black market transactions) stating that, businesses must seek the requisite license or authorization before dealing in foreign exchange transactions.
