President Akufo-Addo being welcomed by Xu Ning Quan.
President Akufo-Addo has broken his silence on the recent depreciation of the Cedi against the US dollar.
He indicated that “I’m aware of the anxiety in business circles and I am extremely upset and anxious about it too.” A dollar was selling at GH¢5.52 yesterday. The Cedi started losing value against major foreign currencies about two-weeks ago.
He disclosed this at the commissioning of the Fujian Sentuo Ceramic Tile Company (FSCTCL) at Kpone, near Tema.
His comments come in the wake of growing concerns about the depreciation of the Cedi against major foreign currencies by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for government and the business community.
The president said his administration was working to restore the value of the Cedi.
“I want to assure you all that efforts are being made to arrest the decline and restore the cedi to stability in order to improve the competitiveness of Ghanaian industry, and I think that very soon we will be seeing the results of our policy,” he added.
He reiterated government’s commitment to addressing the structural problems hampering the industrial development of the country, which is yielding modest results.
“So far, we are improving our standing in terms of ease of doing business in our country; we will also have witnessed significant reduction in the Monetary Policy rate of the Bank of Ghana, which has translated into an increasing decline in lending rate; inflation has also come down significantly since we came to power.”
All these, according to the President, were part of measures to improve the business environment and help enterprises in Ghana to be more competitive.
President Akufo-Addo was particularly excited about the fact that 90 percent of raw materials for the production of tiles from the Sentuo Ceramic Company are derived in Ghana.
He said Ghana is currently investing in technical and vocational education owing to the development.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent