Dr. Stephen Amoah, Deputy Finance Minister has conceded that the depreciation of the Cedi is beyond the doings of the NPP or any political party. This is despite his party coming to power in 2017 by on capitalizing on the Cedi depreciation.
The Nhyiaeso MP and Deputy Finance Minister said though it is a ritual problem caused by the country’s dependence on imports, Dr Bawumia, the NPP presidential candidate has a solution. He said that given the mandate, Dr Bawumia will develop a long-term solution to solve the Cedi depreciation problem.
“Cedi depreciation is a ritual problem, I agree with you. It’s not because of one particular government…It’s an issue that has nationalistic or that needs nationalistic attention,” Dr Amoah said at a media briefing on May 29.
“so far as we keep on being an importer-driven economy, we’ll be having problems with the cedi because we import almost everything. But Inshallah, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, next year if he comes, we’re going to design a long-term framework to deal with the cedi,” he assured.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s long-term strategy to deal with the Cedi depreciation is to back it with gold. He told Organized Labour on Wednesday that gold is the only anchor left for the country to use to back the Cedi.
“And that will keep a lot of stability in the exchange market. Because right now we don’t have an anchor to hold the currency, but if we back it with gold, it will be very stable, because its value ultimately will be reflected by the value of gold, which is very stable,” Bawumia told TUC.