Banking Consultant, Dr. Richmond Atuahene, is advocating for a comprehensive forensic audit covering the past five years to assess potential revenue losses from foreign remittances into Ghana.
While he welcomes the Bank of Ghana’s decision to audit remittance transactions from October 1 to December 31, 2024, Dr. Atuahene believes the audit should extend beyond the fourth quarter of last year.
The Bank of Ghana in a public notice indicated that the audit is aimed at assessing the remittance process and strengthening the regulatory framework governing international money transfers.
Additionally the review will also evaluate compliance with key financial regulations, including the Foreign Exchange Act 2006 (Act 723) amongst others.
Speaking to CNR Business on the development, Banking Consultant Dr. Atuahene described the move as prudent but believes a broader review is necessary to uncover the full extent of discrepancies over the years.
“I am very happy that they themselves have realised that the foreign remittances have not been coming as it’s supposed to be. So now that they say they’ll do the audit, I think it’s a step in the right direction but to me it is not enough.
“We should check the audits back to see how much money has been externalized since 2019 when they passed the payment and settlement services Act 219. I believe we should go further than that and learn lessons from that. All these things started when we talked about fintech and all these other NGOs.
“These people [fintechs] have been externalizing the remittances and to me it’s a step in the right direction but I will urge the governor to move the goalpost back and let us do a forensic audit for the last five years to see how much the country has lost as far as remittances are concerned,” he said.
