Beware of Aflao Border (Ghana)

The entrance to Ghana

By Oghenemaro Onokpegu with agency reports
 
Aflao is a town in Ketu South District in the Volta Region on Ghana's Togolese (eastern) border. Aflao is the twenty-eighth most populous settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a population of 66,546 people.

In the 18th century, Aflao served as one of the major markets for the slave trade.

According to those who have visited Ghana on several occasions, it is a place one would like to visit again and again but that is not the case presently as the place which used to be a tourism centre is fast becoming a trap for travellers especially Nigerians.

Normally, when you travel by road to any African country, it is expected that you change your country’s currency to the country one is visiting and that has been the practice especially for those who trade along those axis.

According to our correspondent, a Nigerian, Chioma Nwachukwu, was travelling to Ghana to spend the last Christmas holiday. The conductor of the luxury bus they boarded had earlier warned his passengers to change their money at Seme Border (Nigeria/Benin Republic border) or Lakoji (Benin Republic/Togo border) but she didn’t hear because she was fast asleep when the announcement was made.

Unfortunately for Chioma, when other passengers were disembarking from the bus to go and stamp their passports, she quickly stopped by to change her money, which was in dollars to Ghanaian cedis. She succeeded in doing that but minutes after the transaction, one of the bureau de change staff rushed into the bus Chioma boarded and pointed towards her direction, shouting, “Na de girl wen give me fake dollars be that.”

The exit

People were amazed and nobody was interested in the case and instead urge the driver to drop her luggage for her for us to move until a Ghanaian, a petty trader who sells recharge cards and sims began to say, “What is always wrong with these guys, why are they always lying on Nigerians? It is not true, those guys are lying.”

His comment forced the driver, conductors and other passengers to follow the lady who was arrested by the security personnel at the border. After serious arguments and counter allegations, it was resolved that the money be taken to the nearest bank for check. Unfortunately most of the banks were closed except for Eco Bank and when the money was checked, it was confirmed original. The lady later brought out the remaining money on her which was serially numbered to prove that the dollars were original.

When he discovered that he was found guilty, the boy fell on his face and asking for forgiveness. It took the interventions of the security personnel and the passengers before the matter was resolved amicably.

Another victim, Vincent Okoro narrates his ordeals. According to him, “We recently travelled overland from Ghana to Togo and crossed by foot at the Aflao border. Before we got to the border we changed some money to pay for Togo visas. The money changer we dealt with gave us the same rate that others had previously quoted. We changed the money we wanted to change with him without incident.

As soon as the transaction was done, he asked if we had any other foreign currency. We said we did. He advised us that we should wrap that currency in the local currency. He said that the Ghanaian border officials we were about to encounter had a scanner that would detect foreign currency and it would be taken. The way to fool the detector was to wrap that currency in local money, he said. He tried to show us how to do it. We said we understood and did it ourselves.

As we walked to the border, two more money changers approached us with the same story. We got shocked... and that was our mistake.

One asked to have a look at how we had wrapped the foreign money inside the local money. We showed him and he said we did it wrong. He offered to do it for us. We said no. He then handed us his pile of foreign currency and said that since we now had all his money we should trust him. Stupidly, we did.

He showed us how to wrap the money (which looked exactly the same as we had done previously) and then gave us the money back.

Moments later when we counted it, we had been swindled of about USD$25. The man was nowhere to be seen.

We share this as a warning to others. The warning is not to distrust Ghanaians who interact with tourists (we had only positive experiences other than this). The warning is simply to ignore people at Ghanaian borders who tell you they need to handle your money for any reason.... or alternatively, beat them at their own game and put blank paper in the middle so the last laugh is yours!

On the other, Stella Agaha said she would recommend that people don’t change money with any 'freelancer' at the border. According to her, “Go into one of the forex-offices. There you can change and count your money without stress. If it is necessary to change with the boys in the street, only change the minimum you need. Change more money once you have reached your destination. Another trick the money changers use is to do the calculation of your exchange on a calculator that has a very interesting way of doing multiplications.”

Kate Kofi also claimed that it is not just travellers who get swindled. “My Togolese friend (born and bred and never left Lomé!) also got caught up when changing Euros to CFA!”

It was gathered that the bureau de change boys have been carrying out the acts for many years. They normally have fake monies especially dollars on them and as soon as their customers are leaving them, they raise false alarm that is after they must have change the customers’ original money to their own fake one. Many passengers have fallen victims to the boys and it was also gathered that they work with the security personnel at the border. The moment the victims are caught, they discussed and let them know the implication of taking up the matter and at the end, the passengers are meant to part with some amount of money.

New Hunters, the parent body of Hotline News, wrote to the High Commissioner of Ghana in Nigeria, Abuja to be precise but there was no response as at press time. All efforts to get his attention proved abortive.

The question is: do Ghanaians especially the government knows the implication of what the boys are doing to their guests. If they remain unstoppable, the other entrances into Ghana especially the airport might experience the same and that might bring bad image to the country that is widely love and visited by people.