Deputy National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale, has noted that the reason former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, kept over a million dollars in her home was because she wanted to accrue enough profit over time.
In an interview on TV3, Mr Basintale noted in 2021, the over a million dollars stolen from the home of Cecilia Dapaah by her house helps was worth around GHC6 million.
However, in 2024, the same amount is worth over GHC14 million. He asserts that the former minister together with other government appointees are starching huge sums of dollars to enable them earn more due to the depreciation of the Ghana cedi.
“Your appointees are busy making profit from the dollar-cedi ratio. Cecilia Dapaah’s $1 million, if it was under her bed in 2021 it meant that the equivalent of that was around GH6 million. If she didn’t touch that, today the equivalent of that is GHC14.6 million. Do you know the profit she has made in three years.”
“So the appointees of President Akufo-Addo have deliberately decided to stuff dollars under their beds,” he said.
The Ghana cedi is expected to face further depreciation against major trading currencies this week due to persistent corporate demand, as noted by currency analysts and traders who requested anonymity.
They attribute the cedi’s weakened performance to both internal and external factors, including the strengthening US dollar against Emerging Markets currencies.
April 2024 witnessed a slight decrease in inflation to 25% year-on-year from March 2024’s rate of 25.8%, largely driven by a reduction in food inflation to 26.8%.
Some analysts anticipate potential inflationary pressures, which could stimulate additional speculative demand for the US dollar, consequently weakening the cedi. The cedi has been among the worst-performing currencies globally this year.