Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo has stated that some measures are being taken by government to help stabilise the cedi against the dollar and other major international currencies.
A dollar is currently equivalent to GHS4.64.
Mr Osafo Marfo explained that it will take approximately a month for any positive impact to be felt after government’s intervention.
“It will take about three weeks to a month after the budget presentation; people take time to make a decision and we have an investment with FDIs so they have to study the budget, see our direction and I can assure you that the cedi will begin to stabilise,” he said, adding: “It has to stabilise.”
He, however, noted that it is “not likely the cedi will appreciate against the dollar, no!”
“That will be utopian. It will stabilise and that should be alright,” he told Joy FM’s Joseph Opoku Gakpo on Friday, 10 March.
Meanwhile, the former Finance Minister has also condemned critics who have argued that government is running away from its promises.
He argued that government has not spent up to a year in office and the tenure of the president is four years, hence promises made by government are to be fulfilled within that period.
“Every political party has a four-year cycle. We have done a one-year budget out of four, so, if I make 10 pledges and in one budget I fulfill six and [then] you say I am running away from pledges?” he questioned.
He said the manifesto presented by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a four-year manifesto and going forward “we will tackle other problems”.
For him, “if anyone thinks that all the pledges by government will be fulfilled in one year, then you are being utopian”.
