Ghanaians are being asked to ‘kill’ the unquenchable taste for foreign products, particularly those products that have locally produced alternatives. This could help the government address the continuous depreciation of the cedi.
Also, the government is expected to, rather than pay lip service, invest heavily into the production sector to drive industrialisation. This would ensure that the country moves from being largely import driven to a country that’s heavily export-oriented.
Dominic Anarigide made these comments when he spoke to A1 Radio’s Mark Kwasi Ahumah on the Day Break Upper East Show today, Monday, August 15, 2022.
His comments were made on the back of assurance from the Bank of Ghana that the recently approved $750 million Afriexim loan facility by Parliament once disbursed, among other measures, will boost the foreign exchange position of the country and help restore confidence in the cedi.
Mr. Anarigide while admitting that the $750 million would help stabilize the cedi, insisted that that was only a short-term measure. Long-term measures, he said, would be industrialization and reducing imports.
“The structure of the economy has to change. We are overly dependent on imports. That is what is causing the problem. What we have to do is to see how we can add value to our agric products. Once the value is added, then they have the ability to command higher prices on the international market. The forex exchange we are going to get would be in the form of dollars, pounds or whatever. That means we would have high amounts of forex because our exports have high value.”
“The other thing is to put up factories or industries that would begin to manufacture some of the things that we are currently importing. If we have fewer imports because we now produce what we used to import, it means the amount of money we used to import goods that cause the cedi to depreciate would no longer exist. Then you are able to add value to our local products and export them as well.”
Mr. Anarigide continued to say, “our taste for imported commodities should also reduce. We should begin to like made-in Ghana commodities.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
