President John Mahama has shot down speculations that the Ghana cedi will trade at four to one US dollar. Speaking to Ghanaian exporters on trade and economic growth, President Mahama said, “Some say it’d come [down] to four [cedis to one dollar] but of course we know the true value of the cedi is not four.”
He warned that if the cedi were to appreciate to four to a dollar, it would have a devastating impact on export businesses. “And if it went as far down as four, it’d kill all your export businesses,” President Mahama cautioned.
The President revealed that he had met with the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, to discuss finding the true value of the cedi. According to President Mahama, the trio believes the real value of the cedi is between 10 and 12 to a dollar.
“Luckily, the forex option has brought it to just above 10 and it appears to have stabilised there. So I think that going forward, anything between 10, 11, and 12, as a band where the cedi operates, will be a fair value, both to encourage our exports, but at the same time not make imports so cheap that importers will flood our markets with toothpicks, biscuits, and coconuts and all those kinds of things,” President Mahama underlined.
The President assured the business community that his government would be prudent in managing the economy to provide a predictable environment for investments. “My government would prudently manage the economy so that you have a predictable environment in which you can make investments knowing that your return on investment would keep your businesses going,” he assured.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen
