‘Gov’t must invest more in local businesses to save the cedi’

Businessman and Chief Executive Officer of Zeera Group of Companies, Alhaji Seidu Agongo, says the government must invest more in local industries and businesses as part of measures to help strengthen the local currency and stave off pressure from the dollar and other major currencies of trade.

Seidu Agongo told RadioXYZonline.com in an interview that, the preference for investing in foreign-owned companies to local ones, contributes largely to the weakening of the cedi, which, has lost about 20 percent of its value against the dollar since January 2014.

The Zeera CEO says many of the foreign-owned investments in Ghana repatriate all their profits in dollars, thus putting undue pressure on the local currency resulting in its constantly faltering against the dollar.

In his opinion, if the government invested more in local businesses, the profits generated from that sector would still circulate within Ghana and consequently help strengthen the cedi.

The Continuous fall of the cedi compelled the Bank of Ghana to announce a tall list of foreign exchange measures aimed at controlling dollar flight so as to stabilise the cedi.

The government also pumped over 100 million dollars into the forex market toward shoring up the cedi.