Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
CDD-Ghana Fellow, Dr. Kwame Asiedu Sarpong, challenges the Vice President and Standard Bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to reconsider the strategy to recover the Cedi from its free fall journey. I appealed to them to do so.
Dr. Asiedu Sarpong with Millicent Safoadu on the Kumasi-based Abusua 96.5FM in Bresosem over the weekend Dr. Bawumia, before becoming Vice President in 2017, urged Ghanaians to believe in his ability to strengthen the Ghanaian Cedi. He said that he was aiming to
He stressed that while in opposition, Dr. Bawumia outlined measures to stabilize the cedi, but nearly eight years after coming to power, the cedi has fallen from 3.80 gigahertz to 15 gigahertz.
Dr. Asiedu Sarpong reviewed his academic notes and recalled the strategies that Dr. Bawumia proposed to Mr. John Mahama to strengthen the local currency and should be implemented to save the cedi from its current decline. he suggested.
He expressed dissatisfaction with government’s silence on the depreciation of the cedi, saying “the government must address the cedi issue because it affects all of us.”
Dr. Asiedu Sarpong illustrated the impact of a weaker cedi on the average Ghanaian worker earning 3,000 GHz, explaining that a weaker cedi makes imported goods more expensive and reduces purchasing power. This leads to price increases by market vendors, which directly impacts consumers.
Additionally, Dr. Sarpong gave the recent example of the pound’s exchange rate fluctuations and shared concerns over the significant depreciation of the cedi against major currencies.
“Last week, I sent money to Ghana from May 8th. 1 pound was Ghc17.13ps. The next day, the pound-to-cedi rate was Ghc17.25ps. Two days later, it moved to Ghc17.35ps. When I sent money yesterday Ghc was 18.17 ps,” he emphasized.
He noted the worrying trend of depreciation of the Cedi in a short period of time and stressed the urgency to address this economic challenge.
“So I decided to check the trends and understand what was going on. I found out that as of April 18th, 1 pound = 1 cedi was Ghc16.80ps. Today, May 18th As of today, it was trading at Ghc18.17, adding almost two cedis in 30 days,” he said.
The calls for a reassessment of the Cedi recovery strategy come amid growing concerns about the devaluation of the currency and its impact on Ghana’s economy and daily life.