Gov’t advised to focus on fundamentals of economy

A panel discussion on the causes of the cedi's fluctuation and its impact on doing business in Ghana has been held with a call on policy makers to focus on fundamentals of the economy.

It was organized by Good Governance Africa-West Africa Centre (GGA- West Africa), a civil society organisation in Accra on Thursday, to help document mitigation measures for recommendations.

Dr Godfred Bokpin, Head of the Finance Department, University of Ghana Business School, observed that focusing on industries, agriculture, production, services and the monetary sector, would see the cedi providing good feed-back.

Dr Bokpin called for the creation of a better enabling environment for farmers to help them meet the export standards and demands, as part of efforts to addressing the crisis affecting the cedi.

“Generation of sustainable inflows in terms of export and import, and having farmers meeting the export standards will help address the cedi depreciation as well as solving the problem of the unemployment situation engulfing the country,” he said.

He noted that the export strategy alone could not solve the cedi problem, but also creating an enabling environment for the private sector.

He said: “the challenges confronting Ghana can be solved by setting strategies and creating an enabling environment to guarantee the private sectors.

“When the cedi depreciates, it affects everyone, so let us identify certain items to substitute exports and provide self-sufficiency for the country,” he advised.

Mrs Tina Asante-Apeatu, the Chief Executive Officer of GGA-West Africa, noted that the maiden forum of the organisation was expected to set a discourse on the cedi fluctuations citizens were battling with.

Participants challenged local manufacturers to produce quality products that had value for money.

GGA-West Africa is an independent and non-partisan research and advocacy organization that work to improve government performance on the continent by strengthening institutions and building consensus through research, capacity building, sensitization programmes and orientation.