Former President John Mahama
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by former President John Mahama, yesterday held its own version of the Town Hall meeting to counter what was organised by government’s economic management team on Wednesday.
Present at the event were former President John Mahama; Johnson Asiedu Nketia; Cassiel Ato Forson, a former deputy Finance Minister; Isaac Adongo, the NDC’s economic guru; Sherry Aryeetey; Fifi Kwetey; Muntaka Mohammed and John Jinapor, among others.
Moving the vote of thanks after all the speeches, the former president, in an apparent response to Vice President Dr Bawumia’s assertion that “if the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you,” revealed that “you can do all the lies and propaganda with the economy [that] you like, the reality of the people’s lives will expose you.”
According to him, the living conditions of Ghanaians would expose the propaganda of the ruling NPP on the management of the country’s economy.
Mr. Ato Forson, who is currently the ranking member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, urged President Akufo-Addo to ‘control’ the public utterances of Dr Bawumia in relation to the local currency because he claimed the Vice President was responsible for the depreciation of the cedi against other major currencies, particularly the US dollar.
According to Mr. Forson, the statements by Dr Bawumia on Wednesday ‘caused’ further depreciation of the cedi against the dollar.
“I will urge the president to restrain his vice-president because anytime he speaks, the currency moves.”
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the local currency sold at GH?5.22 to a dollar compared to GH?5.30 to a dollar on Thursday after the town hall meeting address.
Speaking at the town hall meeting, Dr Bawumia had said the cedi fall was largely due to external factors rather than weak fundamentals of the economy.
He said factors, including the rate of inflation, balance of trade, fiscal balance, money supply, constituted the fundamentals, adding that speculation and expectations about the fundamentals, i.e. external shocks such as oil price increases could also throw strong short-term effects on the exchange rate.