Ex NPP MP Slams Govt ...

... Over Cost Of Redenomination
….Cost Of Redenomination Nearly One Trillion Cedis

Former NPP MP for Akropong, Hon. Agyare Koi-Larbi has stated that it would be immoral and criminal on the part of his NPP colleagues in government to spend nearly one trillion cedis being just to effect a change in the nation’s currency.

“It will be a moral crime to spend such a colossal amount of money in the midst of all the crisis facing the nation at the moment.”

The former NPP presidential aspirant was speaking on Joy Fm last Wednesday in reaction to a report carried in the Daily Dispatch that a top official of the BOG has informed the paper that the cost of the redenomination would be in the region of nearly one trillion cedis.

Mr Agyare Koi Larbi said that re-denominating the currency should be the least of the priorities of a nation that is facing the most unprecedented energy crunch in her history.

The NPP government and the authorities at the Bank of Ghana have over the period of months refused to disclose the cost the nation was incurring in the re-denomination exercise. This deliberate silence on the part of the authorities has persisted even though the NDC Minority in Parliament has officially requested the Governor of the Central bank to appear before the house to disclose the full details.

NDC MP, Hon Sallas Mensah speaking on the same program after Agyare Koi Larbi intimated that the Minority is privy to information pointing to the fact that the real cost of the exercise would actually be in excess of the amount being bandied in the media.

He stated that the Minority would not relent even though it is obvious that for reasons best known to themselves, the government and the BOG are unwilling to inform the nation about the cost of the redenomination.

A source within the BOG has told the Lens that the reason why the official figure is not being released is because of the fear that there could be a serious political backlash and huge outcry when the public gets to know the staggering amount that is being expended on changing the currency when the nation is just a couple of years away from joining the Eco common currency.

“The talk about long term benefit of the exercise would have tenable if plans of joining the Eco were not as far advanced as they are,” the BOG source stated.