Ghana’s current economic down turn has been blamed on the lack of imagination, incompetence and indiscretion on the part of the managers of the economy. The Centre for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA) has observed.
The Ghana Cedi has been on a free fall against major trading currencies, especially the United States Dollar, a situation that has led to a panic situation and a shortage of the Dollar on the market.
The situation has been largely blamed on the country’s heavy dependence on imported products, with others pointing fingers at the Central Bank for doing very little to save the situation.
The year 2014 opened with the US dollar going for GH¢ 2.20. In less than two months, the US dollar is now selling for GH¢ 2.87 and even so the dollars are nowhere to be found.
This, Andrew Awuni, the Executive Secretary for the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy explains that it mainly has to do with issues of demand and supply.
Hence, “any effort to address the problem that does not take into account the question of how to increase supply, or reduce demand will be a sheer waste of time”.
Mr. Awuni pointed to the irony of Ghana’s current economic situation at a time the country’s major exports are enjoying some of the highest international market prices, as well as the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre announcement that Ghana is the third largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria.
“Is it not really an irony that our Cedi should be on a free fall, in spite of all these inflows of foreign capital into the economy? That is why the recent announcement by the Bank of Ghana of the injection of some USD20miliion in the economy to stabilize the Cedi is laughable.”
In his diagnoses of ‘the crisis that has hit the economy”, Mr. Awuni traced the problem to two main fault lines;
The faulty Economic Fundamentals and some Self-Serving Government Policies and the reckless and self destructive over- expenditure of over USD4billion in the last three months of 2012, Mr. Awuni said.
He noted that even though the nation agrees that this over expenditure actually took place and that it has exposed the country to untold economic hardship, no one has taken responsibility for this horrendous and debilitating action and no one has been punished or shamed for putting the nation through it all.
According to the Centre, the deliberate attempt to put the Central Bank in the eye of the problem is most disingenuous.
“The CFA wants to repeat that the clever way by which the managers of the national economy have successfully planted the Central Bank in the eye of this crisis and making the BOG the “face of the problem” is most disingenuous and most unfair,” Mr. Awuni stated.
Leave a comment. 0 comment so far.