Bank of Ghana denies holding on to Black Stars' winning bonuses

The Bank of Ghana is denying that it is unduly delaying in paying winning bonuses of members of the senior national football team, the Black Stars who played in the recent World Cup.

There have been some reports that the bank is holding onto about two million dollars in bonuses and financial rewards due the team for its performance in the tournament.

Each player is said to receive at least 50 thousand dollars. But the Central Bank says it has been unable to release the monies because paying the amounts in cash as expected of it by the Sports Ministry and players would contravene its own operational guidelines.

According to a statement from the bank, it is against prudent operational practice to make payments to individuals in excess of ten thousand dollars in over-the-counter transactions.

Accordingly, the Bank says it has informed the Ministry of Youth and Sports that it would pay the foreign exchange amounts in question either to the bank account of the Black Stars players, or by cheques drawn on the Bank's external account.

This it says is in line with international best practice and with various security considerations.

It says though it has requested the Ministry to furnish it with a list of the names of the players and the respective amounts to each player to enable it to make the payments, it is yet to receive a response from the Ministry.