According to financial writer Toma Imihere, arresting people who are involved in illegal foreign exchange trading is not a long-term solution to the cedi's decline.

Recently, the Ghana Police Service and the Bank of Ghana carried out an operation in strategic areas of Accra with the goal of cracking down on illegal foreign exchange operations, also referred to as "black market" operators.

Tomi Imihere, who is based in Accra, told Citi News about the incident and expressed the opinion that the government should instead adopt a long-term approach to deal with the black-market activities.

“You can’t even keep this thing up. You have black markets all around the country. The police are understaffed and under-resourced. They have their murder cases facing them, their kidnapping cases facing them, so they tend to prioritise,” the financial journalist is quoted by Citinewsroom.com

As part of efforts to address the cedi depreciation, Tomi Imihere suggested that the Bank of Ghana liberalise the formal market which is often represented by forex bureaus operating in the country.

“So, there will be less incentives for people to go and store up dollars in the hope of making a profit or at least storing value. What the Bank of Ghana needs to do is ease the restrictions on the formal market, especially at the retail end. All you do is you take out criminal money… but apart from that, let everything go without question,” he explained.

Meanwhile, some 76 individuals and entities have been arrested and are expected to face prosecution after the BoG and Police found them to have been engaged in the buying and selling of foreign exchange without approval or license from the regulator.

The activities of ‘black market’ operators have been attributed as one of the major causes for the depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies, especially the US dollar.

The local currency is currently selling above GH¢10 to US$1 on the retail echange market.