The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has served notice that it will be taking punitive actions against some commercial banks in the country for deliberately delaying the process of transferring government funds into the treasury single account.
According to Starr Business checks, most banks are not complying with the directive to transfer about GH₵5 billion of government funds to the single account.
The implementation of the Treasury Single Account initiative is in line with the passage of the Public Financial Management Act 2016.
Speaking to Starr Business, the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta said the move will be critical to management of the economy.
“…Essentially, what we are saying is that we have GHS5 billion or so amongst the banks; however, because we don’t have access to it we end up coming to borrow our own money under high interest cost and that does not help with the management of the economy,” he said.
On his part, the Chief Economist for Africa Global Research at Standard Chartered Bank Razia Khan welcomed the move as apt.
“It is a good reform and it cuts the amount the government is likely to borrow,” she said.
