- The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is calling for a better interest rate
- The association’s executive secretary, Sampson Asaki Awingobit, said the rate cut would help businesses
- Ghana’s central bank has kept interest rates at 29 percent even as inflation has eased to 25 percent
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The Executive Secretary of the Association of Ghana Importers and Exporters, Sampson Asaki Awingobit, has called on the Bank of Ghana to work on reducing the monetary policy rate.
He told YEN.com.gh that this will help businesses cushion as they struggle with the depreciated cedi.
Source: Getty Images
Traders are worried that the devaluation of the cedi is adversely affecting their businesses.
The increased policy rate also negatively affects the ability of banks to lend money to businesses.
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“If the Ceremony is lending to the commercial banks at such a high rate, then of course interest rates will be high and that is a concern for the business community.”
The central bank of Ghana held the interest rate to 29 percent, even though inflation has fallen to 25 percent.
Awingobit believes the Bank of Ghana should also reduce the policy rate in line with the reduced inflation.
“Inflation is coming down and you still want to keep your prime rate, and when the prime rate is high, the borrowing rate is also high.”
Awingobit further criticized the Bank of Ghana and the government for allowing a situation that has seen businesses leave Ghana for countries such as Ivory Coast, which have had significant conflicts over the past two decades.
“We who are sitting for time without any conflict are facing challenges with our currency, we are facing challenges with our inflation, we are facing challenges with our commercial lending rates and the Bank of Ghana is still speechless.”
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/f8d258f3cacfef39.png?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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Call for dollarization of Ghana’s economy
YEN.com.gh reported that the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) recently suggested that Ghana should adopt the dollar to stabilize the economy.
According to Dr John Kwabena Kwakye, director of research at the IEA, this should temporarily stabilize the economy.
The adoption of the dollar means that Ghana will either have to abandon the use of the CEDI for the dollar altogether or use the dollar and the cedi interchangeably.
Kwakye said this should be an interim gap to fix the destabilized economy until it recovers.
Source: YEN.com.gh