Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
Minister of Information, Vincent Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has hinted that some $2 billion will soon be injected into the Ghanaian economy to stabilise the depreciation of the Cedi.
He has accordingly warned people who are holding on to dollars as hoarding strategies to increase the relative scarcity of the currency in order to drive up the price to sell them now or lose out.
Speaking on Accra-based Asaase Radio, the Information Minister disclosed that US$750 million are expected to hit the Bank of Ghana account from the Afreximbank, indicating that all the paperwork on the amount had been concluded.
According to him, another US$1.3 billion from the cocoa syndicated loan would be pumped into the system to shore up the strength of the Cedi which will lead to “quick stabilisation.”
“External factors such as the repatriation of funds have led to the Cedi depreciating very quickly. The Bank of Ghana introduced a raft of measures to deal with the depreciation of the Cedi,” he noted.
He added, “I think this morning, the President was briefed that the US$750 million that we were expecting, now all the paperwork has been completed and should hit our account by Tuesday or Wednesday.
“So, if I were you holding onto dollars, I will be selling by now because there is a lot of dollars coming in from the US$750 million and then from the cocoa US$1.3 billion syndicated loan that comes together like US$2 billion hitting the Ghanaian economy.”
The Minister said the solution to the rapid depreciation of the Cedi is for the country to significantly cut down on its import bills, noting, “We are importing rice, chicken, fruit juices. There needs to be clarity on what we need to do to reduce the importation, and those are some of the things that are being done.”
Recently, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) called for calm, and said it had introduced measures to address the falling of the Cedi, while identifying five key reasons for the depreciation of the local currency.
By Ernest Kofi Adu