The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has moved to close a gap in the remittance system that has been quietly draining the country’s foreign exchange reserves, with Governor Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama disclosing that a significant portion of money sent home by Ghanaians abroad never actually enters the domestic banking system.
Speaking at the Remit2Invest roundtable in Virginia, United States, on April 19, 2026, Asiama said some remittance operators have been retaining foreign currency offshore while paying beneficiaries in Ghana in cedis through local arrangements, bypassing the formal banking system entirely.
“Not all the dollars sent home actually enter Ghana’s banking system,” he said, adding that the practice deprives the economy of critical foreign exchange that should be reinforcing reserves.
To close the gap, the central bank has enforced rules requiring remittance proceeds to be lodged in correspondent accounts held by Ghanaian banks with their foreign partner institutions before disbursement locally. “These monies are supposed to be paid into correspondent accounts. Once that happens, they enter the Ghanaian banking system,” Asiama said.
Financial institutions that cannot demonstrate the transfer of received funds into Ghana’s banking system will face regulatory sanctions, he warned.
The disclosure gives context to guidelines the BoG issued in December 2025 for the Registration and Operations of International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), which imposed stricter licensing oversight and required all entities facilitating inward remittances to operate through a BoG-registered IMTO. The central bank believes stronger monitoring of these flows has already contributed to higher officially recorded remittance volumes, which reached $7.8 billion in 2025, up from $4.6 billion in 2024.
Asiama also outlined plans to extend the regulatory perimeter further into digital finance. He said the BoG is developing frameworks for fintech firms and planned legislation on digital assets and stablecoins increasingly used in cross-border payments, building on the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) law signed in December 2025. Open banking and digital credit systems are also being advanced to expand financial access for households and small businesses.
“As regulators, we need visibility. When we can see the flows, we can manage them better,” he said.
