- "The fact of the matter is that all successive governments including my government, in my opinion, which I could be wrong, have not adopted a long-term approach and technique needed to solving this ritual problem of our currency. So, the currency situation in Ghana is like a child with sickle cell, once there’s a small shock, even dust, there’s a crisis."
Stephen Amoah, a member of the finance committee of Parliament, has said that successive governments, especially under the Fourth Republic, have failed to find long-term ways to stabilise the cedi.
The MP for Nhyiaeso said the continuous depreciation of the cedi under Ghana governments past and present shows that the country lacks a long-term plan to tackle the problem.
Speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin on Tuesday (22 March 2022), Amoah called for a collaborative effort to agree a lasting national strategy for minimising the depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies.
He said: “The fact of the matter is that all successive governments including my government, in my opinion, which I could be wrong, have not adopted a long-term approach and technique needed to solving this ritual problem of our currency.
“So, the currency situation in Ghana is like a child with sickle cell – once there’s a small shock, even dust, there’s a crisis …
“But unfortunately, both recent fraternities, NDC and NPP, have been using it for politics,” Amoah said. “Other than that, [we are] a country where almost everything that we use is imported.
“So, how can anybody say that he can solve currency problems in the country in the very jurisdiction [where] we are demanding everything from outside?” he asked.
National strategic framework needed
“If we don’t change our way of solving currency issues in Ghana, we should forget [it]. Any time there’s a shock, we have a problem.
“We need to design and develop a long-term approach so that common items that can be produced in Ghana are given the needed resources to do so,” he said.
“For a long time now, we have not been able to position ourselves to strengthen our cedi and make it competitive against foreign currency, because of the same liquidity and risk factors. We’re importing all of [the goods we use].
“We have failed [to stabilise the cedi] because we’ve not been able to come out with a long-term strategic framework and execute [it] successfully, and all governments have failed,” Amoah said.
Nicholas Brown
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