- NPP General Secretary confident in addressing cedi decline.
- Kodua assures expertise to handle cedi value issues.
- Businesses suffer 20% loss due to cedi depreciation.
- Finance Minister reports cedi stabilization against US dollar.
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, has expressed confidence in the party’s ability to address the decline of the Ghanaian cedi. Kodua asserted that the NPP has the necessary expertise to handle the problems affecting the cedi’s value in relation to other significant trading currencies. He thus urged Ghanaians to be patient as the government works tirelessly to address the exchange rate issue. The cedi has seen a sharp decline in value, trading at almost GHC15.00 to the US dollar.
The depreciation of the cedi was acknowledged by Mr. Kodua, who was speaking on Peace FM in Accra on Monday, but he also expressed his faith in the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government’s capacity to enhance the local currency’s value against the US dollar. He noted, “When the cedi started to decline last year, we implemented measures to stabilize it. Even if it has started to decline once more, I can promise you that we have the qualified individuals to handle it.”
Businesses are still suffering greatly as a result of the cedi’s depreciation, despite Kodua’s assurances. The president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) revealed to TV3 in May that the cedi’s rapid depreciation has resulted in members losing about 20 percent of their capital.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister of Finance, has stated that as of May 20, the Ghanaian cedi has seen a 14.2 percent cumulative depreciation rate, compared to 27 percent in the same period in 2023. According to him, this indicates that the cedi has mostly stabilized and that the local currency remains extremely robust against major trading currencies like the US dollar.
As of the end of 2023, the cedi depreciation was 22.7 percent, which is around half of the 54.2 percent recorded at the end of 2022, according to him. On Friday, May 24, 2024, Dr. Amin Adam made these remarks during his monthly press conference on the economy. Recent pressures on exchange rate fluctuations have led to a stabilization of the exchange rate, with the cedi’s depreciation against the US dollar decreasing from 54.2 percent at the end of November 2022 to 27.8 percent at the end of December 2023.
As of May 20, 2024, the cedi’s stability has persisted into 2024, with a cumulative depreciation of 14.2 percent, compared to 20.7 percent for the same period in 2023. Based on this comparison, we can safely infer that the cedi remains robust, extremely strong, he added.
