Speculation contributing to Cedi woes – Amin Adam

Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has cautioned persons speculating on the cedi’s current challenges to desist from the act.

This comes on the back of comments made by Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central urging businesses who require dollars to purchase some, despite the Minister’s assurances that the cedi will soon be stable.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the Bank of Ghana and IMF officials, Dr. Amin Adam criticised Isaac Adongo for his comments but assured that the government remains fully committed to providing stability in the exchange rate.

“The problem with the cedi, can also largely be attributed to speculations. Therefore, while we have been making efforts to influence market sentiments positively. We also know that some other people are inciting speculations.

“We have had intelligence that people are deliberately inciting speculations. But we never got it too real, as we saw only two or three days ago when my good friend and my brother Hon. Adongo went out there urging people to buy dollars to do their business.

“And this was after I indicated at the Town Hall Meeting in London, that with all the policies we’re implementing, with the flows that we’re expecting from external sources, and with the completion of our debt restructuring, with our bilateral official creditors as well as our Eurobond holders. We saw the cedi becoming stronger and stronger, my brother went out there to say people should ignore Amin Adam and go and buy dollars to do their business.”

He called on the minority to offer the government constructive criticisms and desist from such speculations, describing them as “unhealthy”.

“I think that this is not healthy for our economy, I think that we should all work together, whether we’re the government or the minority. Because we are all stakeholders in this economy. So, we have a duty to our people to ensure that the economy is stronger for the benefit of all.

“My friends on the minority side, I want to appeal to you to stop inciting speculations and to work with us, give us constructive criticisms, and ideas so that we can complement the ideas that we’re already pursuing.”