The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is asking the Vice President and Head of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to refrain from commenting on economic issues.
The NDC believes that Dr. Bawumia has failed to live up to expectations in managing the economy and the country’s currency.
It would be recalled that at a recent Internal Auditors Association (IAA) meeting, the Vice President explained that cedi has depreciated largely because of three reasons. He mentioned the banking sector cleanup, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine as drivers of the falls of Ghana’s cedi.
Ghana’s currency has dropped for 15 straight weeks and the depreciation may extend, if history is any guide.
The cedi has weakened 36.3% this year making it the world’s worst-performing currency after Sri Lanka’s rupee. A 30-year analysis shows that every time the measure has dropped for 15 straight weeks — there have been 28 such instances in the period — the fall has extended each time.
The West African nation’s central bank on Wednesday increased its benchmark interest rate by the biggest margin on record to slow the decline. A depreciating currency will add to the import bill of the country that purchases most of its fuel from overseas, and has been struggling with inflation accelerating at the fastest pace since 2003.
To this end, Jonathan Abdallah Salifu, a member of the NDC’s Upper East Regional Communication Team is asking the Vice President to refrain from making comments about the state of the country’s economy.
He said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
“Can Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the head of the Economic Management Team, just keep quiet and let us think? We need silence. We need to be left alone and see how we can get out of this mess. Where we have gotten to, he has proven to be super-incompetent. So he should just keep quiet. That is my view.”
“These days, when people wake up in the morning, they are thinking about how to survive, how to feed themselves. When you open your radio, you hear him talking, still talking about the economy and how we have spent $7billion to save banks. That is a shame on him.”
“Nobody knows what to do now. The pockets are empty,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
