The Government of Ghana has adopted five measures to prevent further free fall of the cedi.
President Akufo-Addo announced these measures on Sunday, when he addressed the nation on the country’s current economic crisis.
The measures he said are:
- Enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector.
- Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
- The Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
- Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil-producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and
- The Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.
President Akufo-Addo said he was confident that “these immediate measures designed to change the structure of our balance of payment flows, sanitise the foreign exchange market to ensure that the banks and forex bureaus operate along international best practices, together with strengthened supervision, will go a long way to sanitise our foreign exchange market, and make it more resilient against external vulnerabilities going forward.”
The cedi was tagged by Bloomberg as the worst-performing currency in 2022 with its trading value at around GH¢14 to a dollar.
Prices of products such as fuel, cooking oil, rice and other imported items have gone up astronomically within the last few weeks following the depreciation of the cedi.
The continuous free fall of the cedi compelled the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) to declare a strike to force government to take steps to strengthen the currency.