Bank of Ghana, I protest, don’t look into my soup!

Earlier this week, I discovered to my consternation that the Bank of Ghana now wants to virtually look into my cooking pot to know what soup I’m cooking!

Per the Central Bank’s directive, a form I completed at my bank in order to cash a remittance from abroad asked me to state “PURPOSE”! 

I kid you not! If in these hard times a relative of yours abroad takes pity on you and sends you a little something, the Bank of Ghana is asking you to tell it the purpose for which the money is being sent to you!!!

I thought it was my bank that had put this odd requirement on its remittance slip/form, but it turned out that it is a Central Bank matter.

The mini sheet of paper I completed was headed FOREIGN MONEY TRANSFER FORM.

It asked for the following information:

TRANSFER CODE…………………………………………

AMOUNT……………………………………………………

COUNTRY…………………………………………………..

SENDER NAME……………………………………………..

RECEIVER NAME…………………………………………..

ADDRESS…………………………………………………….

HSE NO……………………………………………………….

TELEPHONE NO…... and, unbelievably,

PURPOSE……………………………………………………………

I completed all the sections except for the last, thinking the bank had no business to ask me that. Anyway, I reasoned, a form asking for the “purpose” of a remittance could only apply to business tycoons dealing in huge sums of money suspected to be used for illegal transactions.

However, to my surprise an assistant brought the form back to me, with the explanation that the cashier said I should fill in the ‘purpose’. Incredulous, I went to see a senior official at the branch to find out why my bank now needed to know why somebody was sending me money – especially as my account status should indicate to my bank of over four decades that I’m in dire need of all the remittances I can get!

The official told me simply: “It’s a Bank of Ghana requirement.”

“So do they want to know if it’s my ‘chop-money’? Why?” I asked. He smiled ruefully.

Reluctantly, I wrote: “For housekeeping.” My money was then released to me.

Still in doubt, I went back to confirm from the senior official that it was really a Bank of Ghana instruction. It was, he assured me.

“And do you mean that the Bank of Ghana says the remittance should not be paid to anybody who does not state the “purpose”?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

My question to the Bank of Ghana is: WHY? Why this snooping?!

What is the meaning of this apparently blanket suspicion of all recipients of foreign remittances as probably being the agents of fraudsters or being sent the money for criminal activities in Ghana?

Could this be somebody’s bright idea about how to trap money-launderers? If so, is it likely that a money-launderer, or anybody being sent money from abroad for any illegal “purpose” would state that intention on the form?

Or maybe the Bank of Ghana has established an office or department staffed with officials whose only work will be to read all the reasons stated as the “purpose” on such slips? And will they be analysing the responses to get solutions to Ghana’s economic problems? 

If so, I wonder what conclusions that office or department will make from responses such as: “for chop-money”; “for school fees”; “to buy roofing sheets”; to pay hospital bills”; “for Christmas shopping”; “to repair the storm damage to the family house”, “to pay for land the sender asked me to buy for him/her” and, “to pay for labourers to weed the family farm”.

So what next? Will relatives sending us money now be also required to explain why they’re sending money home?

And why is it that the Bank of Ghana doesn’t demand that when we go to make deposits, the pay-in slip should have printed on it the question: “why are you making the deposit?”

In my view the “purpose” question is quite counter-productive, if not downright impertinent!

I know nothing about economics, finance or banking, but I seem to remember that the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Government depend a lot on the foreign remittances Ghanaians send home.

It’s an established fact, trumpeted over the years that money that Africans, including Ghanaians, send home, totals much more than what the continent receives from its western partners, what is termed ‘Official Development Assistance’.

Furthermore, we have been told that the remittances support the economy critically. Last year, Graphic Online reported that at a forum, a Bank of Ghana official, Mr Eric Koranteng, indicated that the Bank was concerned that foreign remittances had declined and thus would be working on how to get more of the remittances to come through the banks.  

Is asking recipients to state what they’re receiving the money for, the way to encourage more people abroad to send money to Ghana through the banks?

But why does the Bank of Ghana want to know about my ‘chop-money’?  Why subject innocent citizens, depending on the generosity of relatives and friends abroad to needless annoyance? Are things not stressful enough in Ghana at present? Why add more for no useful ‘purpose’?

Apparently the Central Bank doesn’t know the proverb: ‘I only allowed you to come for some coal from my fire to light yours, not to look into my soup pot’!

Even if the Bank wants to know the ‘purpose’, for whatever reason, providing that information should be optional, at the discretion of remittance recipients, NOT mandatory.

Mr Henry Wampah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, I submit that this “purpose” question on the foreign remittance form is totally unnecessary; and it is also an invasion of the privacy of recipients.

So Bank of Ghana, I protest! It should be scrapped immediately!

(ajoayeboahafari@yahoo.com)