John Kumah, a deputy finance minister, has refuted assertions that the Ghana cedi is the continent’s weakest currency.
He asserts that such a claim is untrue and just intended to discredit the government’s budgetary policies intended to stop the free slide of the cedi versus the dollar.
Despite admitting that the cedi may be depreciating at the worst rate on the continent, he claimed that it is currently the third-strongest currency in Africa.
Speaking on Joy News, Dr. Kumah highlighted that the cedi’s bad performance cannot be attributed to inadequate fiscal management because currencies around the world are depreciating at a rapid rate.
“And look, I’ve heard all the nonsense, they say Ghana’s cedi is the worst in Africa, and all kinds of other stuff,” he remarked. Look, don’t buy into that spin. The second-strongest currency in Africa is found in Tunisia, where I recently returned from on a program.
Ghana is actually third in the world in terms of currencies. I’m referring to the power of African currencies. The third-strongest currency in Africa is the Libyan dinar, which is followed by the Tunisian dinar and the Ghana cedi. However, it’s possible that they were discussing the rate of depreciation.
“I just saw what’s going on in Nigeria, and they’re equally moaning about how their Naira fluctuates between 400 and 700 to the dollar, depending on where they are, and sometimes they can’t even get the dollar. Therefore, this is a worldwide issue.
He continued, “Therefore, people should not start to think that it’s the product of some faulty policy or whatever; it is something that is happening globally.”
He claimed that the government had implemented several policies that it thought would help the economy and stabilize the cedi’s exchange rate with the US dollar.