Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama has mentioned the specific offenses committed by nine regulated financial institutions for which their remittance partnership licenses were suspended for a one-month period, starting today, September 18, 2025.
On September 4, 2025, the central bank announced that the remittance partnership licenses of three payment service providers (PSPs), five money transfer operators (MTOs) and one bank have been suspended for one month because they committed “multiple violations of the foreign exchange market regulations” and of the “inward remittance guidelines”.
The three affected PSPs are Cellulant Ghana Limited, Nigerian fintech unicorn Flutterwave, and Halges Financial Technologies, which operates under the brand name Korba. The five affected MTOs are Send App from Flutterwave, Afriex, Taptap Send, Top Connect and Remit Choice; and the only bank involved is United Bank of Africa (UBA) Ghana.
Beginning today, September 18, 2025, all regulated financial institutions in the country are mandated to unplug the nine affected institution, and at the end of the sanction period, they are supposed to reply for new authorization from BoG before that can re-plug the affected institutions.
Even though Halges Financial Technologies was specifically singled out and completely prohibited from engaging in any remittance activities unless and until prior approval has been duly granted by the Central Bank, the BoG’s statements stopped short of stating the specific offenses of the nine institutions.
In answer to a question by Techfocus24 at the 126th Monetary Policy Committee Press Conference, Dr. Johnson Asiama noted that the specific offenses by the eight institutions were multiple and they included diversion of foreign exchange inflows (offshoring) application of unapproved foreign exchange rates and unduly long settlement periods.
He explained that, by law, all inward remittances are supposed to find their way into the nostro balances of local banks. Nostro balance refers to the funds a bank holds in a foreign currency account with a correspondent bank in another country.
According to the governor, some of the sanctioned institutions failed to lodged the foreign currencies they took from Ghanaians abroad in the nostro accounts, but rather engaged in what he called “offshoring” by diverting the funds into other activities in blatant violation of the BoG’s regulations.
The governor noted that others also applied the wrong foreign exchanges rates in breach of the rules, while others were found guilty of unduly longer settlements periods than what the law allows.
“There are rules and regulations when it comes to how every market operates and their licenses were issued to them on condition that they will play by our rules. So, when they breach the rules we have to penalize them and bring them to order,” he said.
Lingering Confusion
Dr. Asiama, however, did not state what the specific offenses of each the affected institutions were. For instance, which of the nine engaged in offshoring, which of them were found guilty of applying wrong forex rates, and who did the delayed settlement.
Answers to these questions are important because Techfocus24 gathered that the sanctions relates to some $17 million plus transaction, initiated by just one of the institutions, and the rest only provided services along the value chain without being aware that the initiator had breached any laws. Ignorance is no excuse, but at least the affected institutions deserve to know their specific offenses.
At least four of the affected institutions have told Techfocus24 that they were never engaged by Bank of Ghana and they were never informed about any offenses they had committed until they read it in the news that they have been sanctioned.
Till date, no formal communication has been forwarded by Bank of Ghana to any of the affected institutions stating what their specific offenses were. So, whereas all the affected institutions have been compelled to submit to the sanctions, majority of them are still yet to get clarity on which of the said offenses applies to them.
One of the institutions stated in response to a request from Techfocus24 that “up till today we still don’t have clarity on what the sanction is for.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Asiama believes the sanctions so far are biting and the central bank is “coming up with more” to enhance efficiency within the foreign exchange market.
Also Read: BoG gets tough; suspends remittance licenses of 3 PSPs, 5 MTOs and a bank for multiple breaches
