Committee to investigate fall of Cedi unbelievable – Prof Asare

A United States-based Ghanaian Professor, Kwaku Asare, has said it is unbelievable that the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance, has set up a committee to investigate the cause of the free fall of the Cedi against the major trading currencies especially the Dollar.

Prof Asare, also a private legal practitioner, said in a Facebook post Friday that : “It must be fake news! I don’t, can’t and won’t believe that a committee has been formed to investigate why the Cedi keeps falling. 128/1820 is a bona fide scam and sham!”

On Friday January 17, 2020, the Ministry of Finance outdoored the FX Development Committee, to investigate the fall of the local currency.

The Committee is chaired by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta with membership drawn from the Office of the Vice President, Bank of Ghana, Agriculture Ministry, Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Association of Ghana Industries, some universal banks among other key stakeholders.

Addressing the press at the inauguration of the committee, a Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahen, said the Committee is not taking over the work of the Bank of Ghana far as the management of the cedi is concerned.

He said “the formation of this committee is not to infringe on the independence of the central bank in its foreign exchange operations.”

He stated that, the work of the committee is to complement the efforts of the central bank in curtailing the usual poor performance of the cedi against its foreign counterparts.

“The committee is also to critically look at the role of automation and digitization as a critical enabler of FX reforms,” he stated.

Last year, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the government was going to establish a bi-partisan committee to investigate.