Pumping Dollars To Prop Up Cedi Hurts Cocoa Exports – Former Finance Minister

According to reports by TV3GH, Former Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Karaga, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has attributed the declining international demand for Ghana’s cocoa to the artificial overvaluation of the cedi, warning that aggressive foreign exchange interventions by authorities are undermining the country’s export competitiveness.

Addressing the persistent liquidity and pricing challenges facing the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Amin Adam argued that continuously injecting US dollars into the foreign exchange market to prop up the local currency creates an unsustainable exchange rate distortion. According to the former minister, celebrating nominal currency appreciation while domestic inflation remains positive violates basic macroeconomic principles and prices Ghanaian commodities out of the global market.

“Ghana’s cocoa is now considered more expensive; consumers are turning away from Ghana’s cocoa,” Dr. Amin Adam stated, referencing international buyer resistance. “When your inflation is 3.8 percent, your currency should depreciate by at least 3.8 percent in order to protect exports. What do we see? They are going around bragging about appreciation. That is poor economics”.

He maintained that an overvalued cedi inflates the dollar cost of Ghanaian produce relative to competing origins, directly shrinking foreign demand and compounding revenue shortfalls within the cocoa value chain. Beyond cocoa, Dr. Amin Adam cautioned that the exchange rate imbalance makes imported agricultural goods cheaper than local staples, threatening domestic farmers across the broader economy.

Urging policymakers to abandon what he described as managing the economy merely by pumping dollars into the market, the former Finance Minister called for balanced monetary and fiscal coordination that safeguards export viability, stabilizes COCOBOD’s finances, and protects the livelihoods of Ghanaian farmers.

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