News:
January 31, 2014
Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as Napo, has asked President John Dramani Mahama to sack the governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), Henry Kofi Wampah.
According to the Manhyia lawmaker, it is long overdue for him (Henry) to be fired because instead of finding ways to stabilize the cedi, he rather waits for things to get worse before deciding to do something about it.
The governor of BoG announced that $20 million has been injected into critical areas of the economy as part of efforts to shoot up the cedi.
Since the beginning of the year, the cedi has suffered more than three per cent depreciation against other currencies, as demand for the dollar by local firms importing goods to drive the growing economy heavily outstripped the supply, thereby worsening the country\’s inflation outlook.
“We are aware of the slight depreciation of the cedi. This decline is seasonal due to firms buying dollars to pay for goods bought during Christmas and it will soon subside. I believe this new set of measures and others to follow soon are transformational and will help revamp our interbank market and stabilise the local currency,” he said.
But speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi on Friday’s edition of ‘Kokrokoo’ Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said “it is about time governor of the Bank of Ghana gets fired. It is long overdue. BoG is in charge of regulating micro finance, savings and loans, banks and so what has been his work and achievement so far. If he says it is difficult to manage depreciation and inflation, where are we heading as a country? I just don’t get it. I heard the governor of BoG saying he was going to fight inflation and depreciation; so what have you been doing since you became a governor”
To get the economy back in shape, the Hon MP advised President Mahama to ‘call upon stakeholders who can help him in managing the economy’.
“Sometimes you just don’t know what to say for the President to urgently do something about the economy…It is about time the President sits up; call upon stakeholders who can help…if the economy will improve, it will not occur by experimentation. We have had enough of it. The managers of our economy either are so much incompetent or they don’t know what they’re doing. If you don’t know you create a situation where all hands can be on deck” he indicated.
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