Businessman abroad comes face to face with Akufo-Addo, questions him about cedi depreciation

During President Akufo-Addo’s encounter with some Ghanaians in Chicago on March 31, 2019 at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, one of the participants who claims to be a businessman expressed worry over how his business has deteriorated for some time now due to the incessant depreciation of the cedi.

While seeking to know what might have been the cause of the depreciation and what ought to be done for it to stabilize, the Ghanaian said his business has suffered a sharp decline.

“Because of the cedi depreciation, we don’t see all your good works,” he mentioned. “Our businesses are collapsing in Ghana. I started business in America in 2008. I used to export about eight containers so in a year, I could export about 60 containers. Nana, as I’m speaking to you now, I came here last year; I exported only one container… please do something about the dollar for us.”

Responding to the concern, President Akufo-Addo said his government was putting in measures to arrest the decline and restore it to stability, in order to improve the competitiveness of Ghanaian industry.

“One of the things to do is to reduce our dependence imports,” he said while indicating that the cedi which has in the past few days rebounded strongly has started appreciating.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says the government is to set up a bipartisan committee to investigate the depreciation of the cedi in recent times.

Addressing Parliament, Mr. Ofori-Atta said “Mr Speaker, the President has directed that I investigate the structural causes for the depreciation of the cedi and to propose measures to address the situation. The Governor and I will put a bipartisan committee together to proceed immediately.”

“It is clearer from the data that the depreciation of the cedi was not due weak economic fundamentals but rather a combination of structural rigidities and apparent speculative behavior of portfolio investors,” he added.

The cedi has depreciated against the dollar from GHc 4.9 to over GHc 5.5 since the turn of the year.