Malawi Fiscal Police step up checks on black market forex dealers
Fiscal Police, a wing in Malawi Police Service says it has stepped up checks to impound and arrest illegal sellers of foreign exchange on the black market that often times take advantage and sell forex at exorbitant rates compared to regular banks.
In an interview With Malawi News Agency (Mana) head of Fiscal Police Yacks Bonongwe said his office has already deployed officers to undertake day and night patrols in all susceptible areas.
He said the checks are some of the precaution measures which the department has put in place to deal with illegal selling of forex ahead of financial hardships.
“Last time we also encountered similar challenges where the fiscal department managed to impound over K200 million worth of forex in black markets. To avoid a repeat, we thought it wise to step up checks in all the susceptible places,” said Bonongwe, adding that the office has so far managed to handle three cases of a similar nature since the start of the exercise last week.
This development comes at a time the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor Charles Chuka’s admittance that the country should wait for close to six months for the country’s currency to stabilise owing to the twin effects on the country’s economy, among them the devaluation of the kwacha against major currencies and funding gaps due to aid freeze.
Some economic analysts have predicted that until the kwacha stabilises, there is bound to be a boom of a flourishing black money market that is likely to challenge the country’s bank rate.
According to Chuka the bank has introduced monitory policies to manage the country’s inflation that is expected to increase from the projected 18.3 percent in December this year to 23.1 percent.
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