The Vice President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Clement Boateng, has urged the Bank of Ghana to put in measures to monitor and regulate the flow of money from the Afexim loan facility.

Ghana just received $750million from Afrexim Bank to support the country finance some infrastructure projects.

However, the Bank of Ghana will take the money and give the cedi equivalent to government.

This will go a long way to boost the Central Bank’s reserves; a move that could help slow down the rate of depreciation of the cedi against the dollar. 

But according to Clement Boateng, should the Central Bank fail to monitor the disbursement of funds, the monies which are aimed at financing infrastructure could end up in the wrong hands.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said, “The option for the government now especially that of the Central Bank is that once this money has been injected into the system, it is the responsibility of the regulator, that is the Central Bank to monitor – and not the Central Bank alone. GUTA is also going to monitor and see the way these monies are going to be disbursed.

“Because often times when injection is done the money goes to the wrong places and if you go to maybe this black market and you want money, you’ll see that that money will have the band of the Central Bank. How did the money get to those black market people?

“So once this money has been injected into the system, and then Bank of Ghana is releasing this money to the banks to serve the business community and those who need it or either import or otherwise, the Bank of Ghana should make sure that their monitoring system and their regulating activities come into play so that this money will serve the purpose for which it was injected into the system.”

He added that while the money is limited in what it can help authorities achieve, it will all be for nothing if it is not appropriately monitored.

“We all know that this money is just a drop in the ocean, but fine, it has come somehow to stabilize the situation a bit and if Bank of Ghana don’t put in measures to check and regulate the flow of this money, this money will not serve the purpose for which it was injected.”