News:
June 29, 2015
A member of Parliament’s Finance Committee is blaming the depreciation of the cedi on the actions of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah.
According to Dr. Mark Asibey-Yeboah, decisions taken by the Governor have rather quickened the free fall of the cedi.
“The Bank of Ghana lacks leadership and I think the only solution is to appoint a new Governor to boost investor confidence” he told Accra-based Oman FM, Monday.
The cedi has depreciated by some 30 percent since January 2015 and some analysts anticipate challenging times ahead.
Some leading economists in the country have criticized government for doing little to save the falling cedi. The Bank of Ghana has since started releasing more dollars onto the market to help halt the cedis’ depreciation but there has been no appreciable effect.
The regulator took the decision after a meeting with the Commercial banks last Friday to get from them what other factors are driving the cedi’s of depreciation.
But Dr. Asibey-Yeboah said pumping more dollars into the market is not the panacea for the depreciation of the cedi.
He bemoaned how the falling cedi is taking a toll on various sectors of the economy especially importers of raw materials and other products in the country.
The economist, who is also the Member of Parliament for New Juaben South added that Ghana is saddled with an 8 billion cedi debt due to unstable macro-economic indicators.
“The vicious cycle of high Inflation, depreciation of the cedi has made many businesses and investors worried but government is not doing enough to salvage the situation” he stressed.
Dr. Asibey-Yeboah called on President John Mahama to sack Dr. Wampah immediately and bring in a more competent person to halt the cedi’s slide.