Scrap Forex Bureau activities to regulate depreciation of Ghana Cedi - Senior Lecturer suggests

Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Lord Mensah, has said that one way government can regulate the current depreciation of the Ghana Cedi is to scrap activities of most forex bureaus in the country.

According to Dr. Mensah although this may seem like a harsh measure to implement, it will in the long term benefit the country.

“The advanced worlds have noticed this,” he said, “that is why they keep transactions between the central bank, the bank hall and the final consumer.

There are no intermediary markets to put margins on the dollar” he stressed. He made these observations on the #InFocus segment of HSTV’s Morning Show, #HealthyMorning, talking to HSTV’s Cecil Lee Longdon about the current falling of the Ghana Cedi; its implications and ways to savage the situation.

Dr. Mensah said Ghana also has to work at becoming an industrial economy if the country is going to solve its long term exchange rate problems.

He said it is important for Ghana to diversify its exports by adding to traditional ones like cocoa, timber and gold.

This, he explained, will help reduce importation because local manufacturing companies will be up and running and there will not be a need to export some products into the system.

He said government should also ensure that infrastructures like roads are in good conditions because they will curb the need to import spare parts; in effect, also reduce the need for foreign exchange.

He said foreign exchange analysts in the country should also be circumspect with information they put into the media for public consumption, since they all adds up to the pressure or demand the dollar receives.

“We need to see these things as national concerns that need to be achieved, and not play politics with our exchange rates” he advised.