In a bold move to enhance financial integrity and regulatory compliance in the remittance sector, the Bank of Ghana has announced a comprehensive audit of all remittance transactions spanning October 1 to December 31, 2024.
This was announced in a statement published by the Bank of Ghana on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.
This exercise, the Central Bank says aims at strengthening the regulatory framework, ensuring compliance, and mitigating the financial risks associated with the remittances sector.
Specifically, this comprehensive audit will assess the compliance of players in the remittances sector to key financial laws such as the Foreign Exchange Act 2006 (Act 723), Updated Guidelines for Remittances, Payment Services Act, 2019 (Act 987), and Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) Guidelines.
As part of the exercise, the Bank of Ghana has urged all financial institutions, fintechs, and remittance service providers to fully comply with the regulators as they conduct the comprehensive audit.
It is anticipated that the findings of the audit of the million-dollar sector will lead to proper systems to track remittances, enforce regulations, and curb illicit financial flows.
This comprehensive audit will come as good news to experts such as Dr. Richmond Atuahene. The Finance and Banking consultant for years has been campaigning for proper systems to track and report all remittances entering the country.
Per his analysis, remittances alone, if properly tracked and controlled could be an antidote to the ever-depreciating cedi. Dr. Atuahene says the sector can provide the needed foreign currency inflows to strengthen the local currency.
He labels remittances as “super gold” which has the potential to fetch inflows larger than gold and other cash commodities that bring foreign exchange.
It is anticipated that at the end of the audit, the remittances sector will be properly positioned to support the country’s economic and financial sector resilience.
