Exchange rate would’ve been 16 cedis to the dollar under NDC – Bawumia

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia says if the government had not changed the trajectory of the cedi inherited under the management of the previous NDC government, the cedi exchange rate would have increased from 4.2 to 16 cedis in eight years.

In an interview on Kumasi-based Wontumi Radio, Dr. Bawumia said the Cedi exchange rate increased from 1.1 to 4.2 to the dollar between 2008 and 2016, explaining that that four-fold progression would have skyrocketed the cedi dramatically.

He intimated that it’s absolutely clear and incontrovertible that the government, under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s leadership, and the current Bank of Ghana, have managed the exchange rate much better than its predecessors.

“We’ve gone from 4 to 5.8, and its not bad at all compared to how the Cedi bolted under them. It’s a completely different exchange rate management regime that we have now who are worth their salt and we’re happy the way things are moving now,” Bawumia noted.

He said the BoG has for the first time introduced forward market operations as part of new institutional mechanisms to tame the rate of depreciation of the cedi.

According to him, the raft of measures pursued, and the monetary policy by the Central bank has kept the cedi stable and improved the forex market.