Monrovia – As part of the Central Bank of Liberia’s (CBL) effort to regulate the monetary policy, there are reports that the bank is trying to get rid of unlicensed money exchangers on the streets. Most of these money exchangers operate without bureaus but just put small boxes at various street corners.
Report by J. H. Webster Clayeh, [email protected]
FrontPage Africa went to the CBL where a daylong meeting was held between the bank and money exchangers.
This newspaper was able to talk to some street money exchangers; below are their views.
“We told the Central Bank of Liberia that it wouldn’t be necessary to take us from the streets. We are also important in the society; taking us from the streets cannot help to stabilize the economy because the inflation in the exchange rate is due to the economic activities.
“Looking at the economy constrain this country is faced with my recommendation to the Central Bank Governor is that the government should use the contractionary policy, which is used to fight inflation in any country.
“If that mechanism is being put into place and implemented, prices will drop, spending will drop and there will be a deflation in the exchange rate.”
Central Bank is coming down with a mandate that will have some effects on us. They say we are the cause of the inflation on the market, so they are trying to eliminate us. We met with them and made them to understand that we are not the cause of this situation.
Base on this problem, we listed factors that are causing the inflation on the Liberian market. So, we are going to come out with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Central Bank to have a regulation put in place.
If you look at the Pro-Poor agenda, which talks about man-power development, we are self-employed and trying to help this government. The government does not have the capacity to employ everybody.
So, if the CBL comes out with the mandate of clearing money exchangers from the streets, it will cause serious problems.
Base on that, we are appealing to CBL to see reason and regulate the exchange rate for us. We can have a system put in place. Within the 17 districts in Montserrado, we will have zonal heads and coordinators. We are not going to display rates. We will be going according to CBL’s own exchange rate.
What I can say is if the government is really doing their work and making sure everything is under control, they will know exactly who is responsible for the rise in the exchange rate.
But what I can tell that, we who are on the sidewalks are not responsible for the increase in the exchange rate on the Liberians market.
Taking us out of the streets will not be the solution to the problem. Instead of taking us from the streets, there are many ways that the government can use us to stabilize the economy. If you take us from the streets in the name of stabilizing the economy, then the question will be where will you carry us.
As you can see, there are many young people, who are involved in this money exchange business. And some of us are doing this to go to school and make ends meet.
So, the government needs to be innovative and find a way to include us into the system in the way that we may not cause harm to the system. If they just want to take us from the system in the name of stabilizing the system, they will be creating more problems for themselves.
We are not the key factor of the increment in the exchange rate on the market. Those of us exchanging money on the sidewalks are not manufacturing money. We go to those businesspeople and they buy our money. So, the demand from those people who are doing business is affecting the exchange rate. Their demands will bring huge demand in the US dollar rate.
If their demand is high, they will come down and give it to us for a higher rate and if we get money from them for higher rate we will end up displaying the rate higher then what we were having because we want to get US and go to the people in the store to get Liberian dollars faster.
So, we are telling the CBL that we are not the cause. Let them go back and see how they can provide more US dollars for those importing on the market; that will help to stabilize the exchange rate.
If the CBL can provide US dollars for those importers, the exchange rate will be stable. But the CBL lacks the ability to provide US dollars for those importers and so that why the exchange rate is going up every day.
CBL does not need to take us from the market; let them go back on their drawing board and publish whatever rate they want to use. We will set up a task force to go after anyone who will display any rate higher than what the bank has mandated.
We are asking the CBL to not get us out of the streets because the government cannot employ everybody.
So, we are asking the CBL to give the opportunity to us who are on the streets exchanging money. We want to be under the CBL to be paying taxes and everything we will do should be done legally.
Taking us from the streets will not be the right thing for the government to do. The issue of the continued increment of the US rate has surprised many of us on the sidewalk. And now, the government is trying to shift blame on us about the increment in the exchange rate.
We do not manufacture money. Some money exchangers on the sidewalk do not even have US$500 so how can we be the cause of what’s going on?
CBL can have control over this rate but they have to work with us on the sidewalk. We know where all the money exchangers are.