Dr. Bawumia’s Controversial Challenge to Bank of Ghana

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• Johnson 11 years ago

  Pls tackle the issues he raised

  Pls tackle the issues he raised

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• Bomfaboy 11 years ago

  Turning the truth upside down to make a wrong analysis! Is that how Ghanaian so called economist think? This is shameful. Dr Bawumia made a factual stem want about the exchange rates: that on the open market the US Dollar is ...
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  Turning the truth upside down to make a wrong analysis! Is that how Ghanaian so called economist think? This is shameful. Dr Bawumia made a factual stem want about the exchange rates: that on the open market the US Dollar is trading between 3.7 to 4.1 cedis, while the Bank of Ghana quotes 3.09, and now revised to 3.135 or so. Is this true or not? How many business people gets their foreign exchange from the Bank of Ghana? The local banks and the forex beauraus are the places they go to exchange money and do business. So wherein lies your condemnation?
  On consumer goods prices, and especially the food group as the economist say, as quoted by the GSS, are palpably false. Food prices everywhere in Ghana have increased more than 50%. The point is, when truth is not your stock in trade, your permutations become awkward and therefore into credible. May be this guy sits in Germany and does not talk to the village folks to know how they are feeling the price hikes on a daily basis. The truth indeed hurts.

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• GIRLS SP 11 years ago

  Dr. Bawumia has tried 1000 times to pump some sense into your(NDC)dead brains but you corrupt fools will not take it.
  All what you fools konw is corruption and stealing. So Mensah Dekpotor must shut his dirty "SNOUT" and fin ...
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  Dr. Bawumia has tried 1000 times to pump some sense into your(NDC)dead brains but you corrupt fools will not take it.
  All what you fools konw is corruption and stealing. So Mensah Dekpotor must shut his dirty "SNOUT" and find some work doing in Hamburg and stop his all day long consumption of AKPETESHIE in Hamburg Wandsbek. You lazy Ewe odiot!

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• Peter 11 years ago

  Who is this ashluck girls sp ashanti ashawuo born,never no his father but stealing to come to europe.who is corrupted than the npp and prostitute ashantis. ma wone mbuowe

  Who is this ashluck girls sp ashanti ashawuo born,never no his father but stealing to come to europe.who is corrupted than the npp and prostitute ashantis. ma wone mbuowe

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• GIRLS SP 11 years ago

  Dr. Bawumia has tried 1000 times to pump some sense into your(NDC)dead brains but you corrupt fools will not take it.
  All what you fools konw is corruption and stealing. So Mensah Dekpotor must shut his dirty "SNOUT" and fin ...
  read full comment

  Dr. Bawumia has tried 1000 times to pump some sense into your(NDC)dead brains but you corrupt fools will not take it.
  All what you fools konw is corruption and stealing. So Mensah Dekpotor must shut his dirty "SNOUT" and find some work doing in Hamburg and stop his all day long consumption of AKPETESHIE in Hamburg Wandsbek. You lazy Ewe odiot!

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• Mozato 11 years ago

  Who would write this chaff if one is a Trokosi? This idiot still want us to revert to the old past ways where Kookoo farmers use to carry their monies in Kookoo sacks to the bank.

  Who would write this chaff if one is a Trokosi? This idiot still want us to revert to the old past ways where Kookoo farmers use to carry their monies in Kookoo sacks to the bank.

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• Yaw Poku, USA 11 years ago

  Another stupid ewe trying to defend his NDC party with his stupid analogy of Bawumia as a northerner should help his fellow northerner to succeed so that he (Bawumia) can also succeed. Is being a northerner more important t ...
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  Another stupid ewe trying to defend his NDC party with his stupid analogy of Bawumia as a northerner should help his fellow northerner to succeed so that he (Bawumia) can also succeed. Is being a northerner more important than being a Ghanaian? What a warped logic from another ewe nation wrecker.

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• ADJOA WANGARA 11 years ago

  The lazy Mensah Dekpoter will be hawking from one Afro shop to another in Hamburg on the high street of Wandsbeker Chaussee in Hamburg, drinking Akpeteshie and talking nonsense of dirty NDC politics while others are working.

  The lazy Mensah Dekpoter will be hawking from one Afro shop to another in Hamburg on the high street of Wandsbeker Chaussee in Hamburg, drinking Akpeteshie and talking nonsense of dirty NDC politics while others are working.

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• Peter 11 years ago

  Yes this is one of them,Mother an Ashanti,and Father Wanngara so the full name is Adjoa Wangara she cant hide it

  Yes this is one of them,Mother an Ashanti,and Father Wanngara so the full name is Adjoa Wangara she cant hide it

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• Annorwuo 11 years ago

  The 'naked' falsehood? You are free to believe in anything that fancies your imagination,but don`t expect everybody to accept Bawumiah`s "madness" as gosple!

  The 'naked' falsehood? You are free to believe in anything that fancies your imagination,but don`t expect everybody to accept Bawumiah`s "madness" as gosple!

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• Johnson 11 years ago

  Do do know Ghana has once been fined by the ficticious reportage by these institutions?

  Do do know Ghana has once been fined by the ficticious reportage by these institutions?

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• Dantankwa 11 years ago

  PLEASE DEAL WITH THE ISSUES THAT BAWUMIA RAISE.

  PLEASE DEAL WITH THE ISSUES THAT BAWUMIA RAISE.

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• Mankind 11 years ago

  In other words,Dekportor is asking Dr. Bawumia to condone with the BoG's fraud!! What an idea!!!

  In other words,Dekportor is asking Dr. Bawumia to condone with the BoG's fraud!! What an idea!!!

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• Annorwuo 11 years ago

  Because its has been a couple of days since Nii Moi Thompson,a Presidential Economic Adviser 'disrobed' Bawumiah and his backers with a simple but devastating rebuttal, in full glare of his captive audience. And guess who h ...
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  Because its has been a couple of days since Nii Moi Thompson,a Presidential Economic Adviser 'disrobed' Bawumiah and his backers with a simple but devastating rebuttal, in full glare of his captive audience. And guess who has recoiled into a shell on this subject matter,abandoning the 'fight' he started to guillible 'praise-singers' he has managed to hoodwink all these years? Has Bawumiah, perhaps, been afflicted by yet another bout of "sleepless nights" which accounts for his silence?
  And what "BoG fraud" are you talking about? I hope you`ve taken the time to read what the Govt Statistician had to say about Bawumiah`s spurrious and puerile allegations about fudging official numbers! So,I do not believe you can criticize Dekportor for telling your 'idol' to be honest and truthful in his public utterances on the economy!

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• Panin 11 years ago

  What is the point writing this useless article that only seem to glorify an institution that fails to be credible. When economic figures are completely misleading especially when it comes from our central bank becomes poisono ...
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  What is the point writing this useless article that only seem to glorify an institution that fails to be credible. When economic figures are completely misleading especially when it comes from our central bank becomes poisonous to business and puts our economic indicators in serious peril. When BOG pegs the dollar at 3.02cedis who profits from the remaining 0.80 cedis? The Moneygrams and the Western unions of course. So when I wire $1000.00, I loose 800 cedis. They pay less money at the various outlets in Ghana and help them defray the cost of commissions at the back of hard working Ghanaian citizens.
  
  Making the cedi look more valuable on paper is what I call banku economics. When black market activities increase that translates into revenue loss through taxes collected at the forex bureau.

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• STONER KOBYLYNTON 11 years ago

  It takes deep thinking to understand economic issues and most economist many times failed with their predictions. Dr. Bawumia's message on the Exchange Rate issue is very simple but without deep thinking you would not get his ...
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  It takes deep thinking to understand economic issues and most economist many times failed with their predictions. Dr. Bawumia's message on the Exchange Rate issue is very simple but without deep thinking you would not get his point.
  
  As he puts it, if BoG or the government pegs the exhange rate at GHC3.03 whereby traders don't get access to that rate from BoG and turn to go to the Commercial Banks and the Forex Bureau to buy it at GHC3.60, it clearly means that the government is not forth coming with the true prevailing market rate.
  
  Secondary, if the government buys cocoa from the farmers at GHC3.03 and these farmers go to the market to buy any finished imported item or any locally manufactured item which somehow gets its raw material from overseas which traders used GHC3.60 to bring them home, that means the government has cheated the farmers. The farmers have to make the difference of GHC3.03 and GHC3.60 in order to make their purchases. That is what Dr. Bawumiah said the Government is bent to cheat Cocoa farmers.
  
  The redenomination of the currency in 2007 is nothing new in the global financial system. Russia did some in 1990, Belgium and other countries have done same years back. Redenomination is neither revaluation nor devaluation. It does not change in anyway the value of the currency. It is just done by removing the zeros or moving some decimal points to the left with the aim of correcting percieved misalignment in the currency and pricing structure, and enchancing the credibility of the local currency. The benefits of such move is as follows:
  
  1. The efficient way of doing this is to knock off the zeros.
  
  2. It facilitates business transactions because it will lead to the use of smaller units of the Cedis.
  
  3. It leads to a more portable Cedis and a significant reduction in the dead weight of the money people carry and the associated risk.
  
  4. It reduces the phenomenon of money illusion that people suffer from when there are may zeros. Money illusion tends to generte inflationary pressure.
  
  5. It leads to greater confidence in the Cedis.
  
  6. It can sometimes reduce inflationary tendencies if the process is well managed.
  
  7. Also multile zeros complicate statistics and transactions.
  
  Generally, it was a good idea than when Chairman Rawlings diabolically raided the whole country of his GHC50.00 episode.

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• Boss 11 years ago

  Useless article. These so called reputable institutions were caught having falsified data and the govt had to pay a penalty to the IMF. Instead upfront addressing his issue, you just write some nonsensical article. For soluti ...
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  Useless article. These so called reputable institutions were caught having falsified data and the govt had to pay a penalty to the IMF. Instead upfront addressing his issue, you just write some nonsensical article. For solutions go and read Bawumia's speech at central university where he laid down practical solutions.

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• konfanko 11 years ago

  he provided the anomalies but u do not address the issues Bawumia raised.

  he provided the anomalies but u do not address the issues Bawumia raised.

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• Rita 11 years ago

  Dr. Bawumia should be told in plain language that by portraying Ghana to be that bad does not make it so. He should rather concentrate in fixing his broken party, if he has any ideas.

  Dr. Bawumia should be told in plain language that by portraying Ghana to be that bad does not make it so. He should rather concentrate in fixing his broken party, if he has any ideas.

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• Kwame Angel 11 years ago

  Because Bawumia is an economist, he should respect anything that the BOG and the Statistical Service say. What Nonsense. Bawumia is protecting the integrity of the two institutions by exhorting them to free themselves from th ...
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  Because Bawumia is an economist, he should respect anything that the BOG and the Statistical Service say. What Nonsense. Bawumia is protecting the integrity of the two institutions by exhorting them to free themselves from the claws of politics. Bawumia never said bad news is good news for Ghana. He is not challenging the inflation numbers because it is too good to be true; it is a lie and a complete nonsense. You can not have prices doubling (sometimes tripling) and you currency losing 40% value and have inflation rate at 14%. The Statistician said it was not all about prices. Foolish talk. What goes into the computation of inflation. I do not know any course in economics and statistics in which inflation is calculated without prices. The difference is what prices go into the computation.

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• Ryan 11 years ago

  Bawumia is running down every state institution and I wonder if he will rely on them if they ever get power. I think the author concluded with a false argument. Mahama's political carreer has nothing to do with Bawumia's and ...
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  Bawumia is running down every state institution and I wonder if he will rely on them if they ever get power. I think the author concluded with a false argument. Mahama's political carreer has nothing to do with Bawumia's and for that matter, any northerner's political carreer. That's a myopic view of things. How does Kufour's thievery for instance affect the fortunes of any Akan's political carreer? Mahama's performance does not in anyway,predict the political carreer of any northerner and please stop these stupid supposed "tribal" arguments.

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• kay de 11 years ago

  Mr. Mensah you better go and read what your nye-bro Atsu Amegashie has written to better understand the issues but politicising. Both parties may be right based on where they are coming from especially the elements in the met ...
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  Mr. Mensah you better go and read what your nye-bro Atsu Amegashie has written to better understand the issues but politicising. Both parties may be right based on where they are coming from especially the elements in the methods used. this is not politics and tribal issues as usual.

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• Joe Accra 11 years ago

  They don't believe in the:
  EC
  Supreme Court
  Statistical Service
  Bank of Ghana
  Even their elected leaders.
  
  What does NPP believe in?

  They don't believe in the:
  EC
  Supreme Court
  Statistical Service
  Bank of Ghana
  Even their elected leaders.
  
  What does NPP believe in?

  reply
• atta 11 years ago

  Your suggestion that printing of larger denominations of the cedi does not make economic sense. That will cause higher inflation since higher denominations give higher spending power and people will take advantage of that to ...
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  Your suggestion that printing of larger denominations of the cedi does not make economic sense. That will cause higher inflation since higher denominations give higher spending power and people will take advantage of that to make higher profits even though the cost price of good may not increase. We have done this before when we printed 100, 500, 1000 CEDI's and the result of this was higher inflation. The benefit of the redomination was that it contributed in lowering inflation to the single digits we have now. What should have been done after the redenomination was to increase exports while reducing imports. When that was not done, the value of the cedi was always going to fall and keep falling as we import more and export Less hence the foreign currency does not meet the demand for it to buy our imports.

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• Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

  Whatever ails Dr. Bawumia ails Ghana's NPP and those who waffle hoping to retain a middle ground. In all the nations of the civilized world our leaders look up to for precedent they do have any number of economists who I must ...
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  Whatever ails Dr. Bawumia ails Ghana's NPP and those who waffle hoping to retain a middle ground. In all the nations of the civilized world our leaders look up to for precedent they do have any number of economists who I must say do have a better understanding of the economic theories they employ at a system far more complicated that any Ghana could ever have. Yet the world has seen the best and the worst of a not so scientific economic practices at work that has failed the best of the economists in the best of nations.
  In Ghana, some particularly the NPP, pretend Dr. Bawumia is an economists without fault, hype or folly. Dr. Bawumia like us all knows far too well that the success or failure of any institution is dependent on its foundations, practices and procedures coupled with adherence to those values. Did we have a global financial meltdown between late 2008 and 2012 because all economists of the world were asleep and Ghana's Dr. Bawumia was correct with his warnings? Heckler no. Dr. Bawumia choose to adopt opportunistic stance when on the outside despite being just as clueless as us all when his craft and skills were needed most. Ghana did not devalue its currency in 2007 because it was the nice thing to do and Dr. Bawumia did not see an alternate because he subscribed to the same norms that brought global economies to their knees. We can worship our classroom educated deities all we want but the proof of their hand work is in the hardships we have faced in Ghana since 1966.

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• Kwapps 11 years ago

  Mensah Dekportor, not sure what your background is but you have demonstrated a clear lack of understanding for Bawumia's position.
  
  
  Who tells you BoG and GSS are reputable state institutions? So even if they were is that ...
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  Mensah Dekportor, not sure what your background is but you have demonstrated a clear lack of understanding for Bawumia's position.
  
  
  Who tells you BoG and GSS are reputable state institutions? So even if they were is that a reason not to challenge them? He has worked closely with both institutions and is privy to how they operate; how they are capable of cooking the books to make Ghana appear attractive or hide the fact that things are far worse, just as you are suggesting Bawumia should do!
  
  You remind me of someone who will continue to hide the rot in your own home until you are finally overpowered by your own stench. It is obvious you haven't learnt anything from your host nation but continue to look on in amazement at how they have achieved so much.

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• Steve 11 years ago

  Chris, does it mean that when something is wrong with BoG, the economists shouldn't have a say. When something is going wrong with the Govt. the Professor of Law should make no comment? Is that what you want to tell us? In ...
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  Chris, does it mean that when something is wrong with BoG, the economists shouldn't have a say. When something is going wrong with the Govt. the Professor of Law should make no comment? Is that what you want to tell us? In as much as I agree with you that the BoG and GSS are sensitive areas and should be kept out of politics and must not dry our dirty clothes in the sun, then they must act in transparency so that they are not dug out of the hole. We are all waiting to see how the NPP would handle the economy should they win the next election. It will make them be cautious, as people are there to wash their dirty clothes also in the opening. Chris, African govts. need to be whipped all the time before they get to know the right from the wrong. I don't blame Dr. Bawumia.

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• HAZOR 11 years ago

  Where is the integrity of Bank of Ghana when they allow $650 million to vanish without a trace and misleading us on exchange rate and when Dr Bawumia call for integrity on revealing data on exchange rate among the major curre ...
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  Where is the integrity of Bank of Ghana when they allow $650 million to vanish without a trace and misleading us on exchange rate and when Dr Bawumia call for integrity on revealing data on exchange rate among the major currencies,NDC members has open their stinking wide mouth to address Dr Bawumia for speaking the truth.It is only self centrened people who will write and post such nonsense on Ghanaweb.

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