Task force to ensure hotels charge in Cedis

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has constituted a task force to ensure that all hotels in the country, and by extension tourism facilities, quote rates in the local currency.

Hotels and schools have been cited for perpetuating dollarization in the country.

Though hotels in Ghana dissociated themselves from the practice, a stakeholders’ meeting organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 called for a cessation in dollarizing rates with immediate effect.

Officials of the Bank of Ghana were invited to the meeting to explain the reasons behind the Bank's recent guidelines on Foreign Exchange Accounts and Foreign Currency Accounts.

Speaking on TV3’s News@10 on Tuesday, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, insisted: “No tourism facility has the right to charge in dollars”.

“We want to make the Cedi strong,” she insisted. She pointed out that the Central Bank had in the past licensed some hotels to charge in foreign currencies but in the face of depreciation of the Cedi, the licenses have been revoked.

Ms Ofosu-Agyare further said that the new measure is to make the economy better for all including the hoteliers.

“If the economy is good investors will come in and patronize the hotels.” She asked all to comply in order to avoid the wrath of the task force to be deployed.