President Akufo-Addo has attributed the free fall of the Ghana cedi to major currencies, particularly the dollar to what he described as “activities of speculators and the Black Market” and publisher of falsehoods about the local currency.
In his Address To the National, the President threatens that “relevant state agencies will act against such persons.” publishing falshoods about the foreign exchange market and “so-called haircut on Government bonds sent all of us into banks and forex bureaus”
“The recent turbulence in the financial markets was caused by low inflows of foreign exchange and was made worse in the last two to three weeks, in particular, by the activities of speculators and the Black Market. An anonymous two-minute audio message on a WhatsApp platform predicting a so-called haircut on Government bonds sent all of us into banks and forex bureaus to dump our cedis, and, before we knew it, the cedi had depreciated further.” – President Akufo-Addo said in his address
“All of us can play a part in helping to strengthen the cedi by having confidence in the currency and avoiding speculation. Let us keep our cedi as the good store of value it is.”
“To those who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods, which result in panic in the system, I say to them that the relevant state agencies will act against such persons.” – he warns
Ghana’s local currency has earned the worst-performing local currency spot on the global forex market. The cedis since the last three months has seen over 50% percent depreciation.
If readers can remember, the incumbent Vice President, Dr. Bawumia in 2012 when he was the opposition Vice Presidential candidate rubbished any possibility that the cedis’ minimal depreciation at the time was due to speculations on the forex market.
Today, the reality has hit him being the head of the Economic Management Team and witnessing his boss playing the same blame game card on speculators.
Read President Akufo-Addo’s full speech: