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Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has cautioned that the government’s sudden crackdown on black market forex dealers is already causing distortions in the forex market and aggravating the volatility of the cedi, a development he says threatens ongoing efforts to stabilise fuel prices.
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, Mr Amoah said the swoops carried out by a state task force were producing unintended shocks in an already fragile market environment.
Mr Amoah explained that the cedi’s unstable performance has become the single biggest determinant of fuel prices in recent months. According to him, even when global oil prices remain relatively calm, local pump prices continue to swing sharply because the cedi itself “has been on and off.”
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“You would find a certain window of two weeks that the cedi is relatively stable,” he indicated. “At other times, the cedi gains. Then suddenly, the next time you hear the cedi has lost some value.”
He described the situation as unpredictable and worrying for importers, marketers, and consumers.
Mr Amoah disclosed that his own team experienced the volatility firsthand on Thursday, December 11, while attempting to source dollars for market research purposes.
“For today… whilst at the office with a few people, we kept trying to source dollars from the open market, and you will be surprised by the rates that kept coming within one hour,” he said.
He emphasised that the sharp rate movements within such a short window were “alarming” and suggested that something more disruptive was happening beneath the surface.
The COPEC boss linked part of the sudden volatility to the government’s latest security operations targeting street forex traders.
“Whatever the task force did yesterday by arresting black market dealers is also having a negative impact,” he stressed.
Mr Amoah argued that while the government may be acting in the interest of regulation and security, the approach is inadvertently choking off liquidity in the informal forex space, a space many businesses still rely on due to limited access to bank-issued dollars.
He urged authorities to “review that carefully” and consider a more strategic and less disruptive approach.
According to him, the question must now be asked whether the state should continue “swooping in on these guys that provide the market with the forex” or whether there should be a more cooperative method that recognises the role these operators play in meeting market demand.
He warned that the current method may be worsening the instability of the cedi, rather than helping to stabilise it, and by extension may threaten fuel price stability in the short term.
COPEC is calling for:
- A review of the task force’s enforcement strategy
- A more “friendly”, structured engagement with open-market forex sellers
- A recognition of the informal sector’s role in Ghana’s foreign exchange ecosystem
- Policy coordination between security agencies, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana
Mr Amoah maintained that stabilising the cedi remains the surest path to protecting consumers from frequent fuel price hikes.
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