Cedi depreciation: Let’s have a national economic dialogue – Appiah-Kubi

Andy Appiah-Kubi, the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North, has called for a national dialogue to come up with solutions to the difficulties facing the Ghanaian economy and the depreciation of the cedi.

According to him, the country needs to revise its economic arrangements to develop a blueprint that will make it a country worthy of living.

Speaking on The Key Points on Saturday, May 18, Mr Appiah-Kubi emphasised the importance of value addition to Ghana’s raw materials to rake in enough revenue and stabilise the local currency.

“Reference to the Guggisberg economy was the fact that we were exporting raw materials to feed European industries, if we have a good understanding of that we need to reverse it so that our raw materials will find value addition our economy and indeed access to our local markets.

“We can have a national forum on the economy and let’s agree to accept other people’s opinions. The country is for all of us so that if we do it well it becomes a habitable place for all of us, so a national economy probably at this time to think through our difficulties and come out with a blueprint that will sustain Ghana as a country worthy of living,” he stated.

Additionally, the Asante Akim North lawmaker advocated for the removal of trade restrictions for countries in the ECOWAS sub-region to trade among themselves.

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“Let’s reverse the trend and make sure that we are into the production of the raw [materials] and make sure also that we add value to it and take advantage of our markets.

“These are the underlined principles that culminated in the creation of the ECOWAS regional market so that we take advantage of what we have and the market situation in West Africa.

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“West Africa working together presents a very huge market that attracts investment but unfortunately, all these things are in textbooks, we don’t practicalise them,” he noted.

Moreover, as regards the issue of tax exemptions to foreign companies, Mr Appiah-Kubi expressed satisfaction in Parliament for raising objections to the government’s proposal, stating that Ghana is in a “critical season” and thus cannot “throw these monies [away] and go back begging for proportions of those monies.”

“If we had the environment that could facilitate tax exemptions, we will do but now we cannot do that…this issue of tax exemptions was withdrawn from Parliament yesterday, I am very happy about that. Let Parliament have a meaning.

“Parliament cannot only be a post office where we place anything there and it goes, we must interrogate anything that comes to Parliament,” Mr. Appiah-Kubi said.

Meanwhile, the cedi, which was trading against the dollar at GH? 11.98, is now hovering around GH? 14.85 at the forex bureaus, resulting in a depreciation rate of close to 20% since the beginning of the year.

Additionally, the former Deputy Minister for Finance, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has cautioned that the local currency could be trading at GHC25.00 to a dollar by the end of 2024.

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