He made the remarks in response to questions raised Friday night at the Mansa Kunda Ministerial Town Hall meeting held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara conference centre in Bijilo, organised by the Ministry of Information.
“We also did a revision of the foreign exchange guideline which has increased the flow of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market,”
The confidence increased in terms of the exchange rate of the dalasi and the stability and the gap between the parallel market known as the “black market” and the official foreign exchange market,” he revealed.
He said that the arbitrary opportunity between the two markets has narrowed significantly, adding that statistics was about 98 bututs. However, he made it clear that parallel market is “illegal” by law and must “not exist”.
“We made announcement to them that if they want to continue to operate, let them come to the Central Bank and register as foreign exchange bureaux, but very little has come out of that.”
He observed that enforcing the law by chasing and arresting those (agents of black market) to terminate their operation will also create another challenge in the economy.
By doing so he said, the “black market” operators will go underground by hoarding which in turn will impact the availability of foreign currency in the country and by implication, affect the exchange rate.
He explained that to avoid that pressure on the exchange rate of the dalasi, the CBG urged them to come forward to register in the foreign exchange market as they stand to have equal opportunities.
Speaking about the currency, he revealed that the stability of the local currency largely depends on factors which such as the availability of foreign currency in the country and the reserves that the Central Bank is holding.
“Are we having the adequate reserve to support the exchange rate of the country and to also meet the demand of the country in terms of financing international trade and services?” he quizzed.
However, he pointed out that the supply of foreign currency is from export earned, adding that The Gambia basically exports very little which includes groundnuts and few other commodities.
The other source of foreign currency for The Gambia, he added, is donor support together with tourism and diaspora remittances.
He finally pointed out that what affects the exchange rate is same as happening in the international economy.
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