Ghanaians are being urged to breathe a sigh of relief by the information minister as the government plans to infuse approximately $2 billion into the faltering economy.
This indicates that the sharp decline in the value of the cedi would soon come to an end, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah said in an interview with Citinewsroom.
The Ghana cedi has consistently declined in value versus major trading currencies since the beginning of this year, particularly the US dollar.
The value of the cedi had decreased by more than 20% as of July this year.
On the currency exchange market, the local money is currently trading for more than GHS 10.00 to 1 USD.
But the minister allaying the fears of citizens revealed that while 750 million dollars is expected from the Afremix Bank this week, the cocoa syndicated loan will add $1.3 billion. These monies, he said, are expected to hit the Bank of Ghana’s account.
“The Bank of Ghana introduced a number of measures in the short term to deal with it and on the back of that… the $750 million that we were expecting, all the paperwork has been concluded, and it should be hitting our accounts today or tomorrow,†he said.
“If I were you, and I was holding onto dollars, I would be selling them by now because there is a lot more dollar coming in from the $750 million and also from the Cocoa Syndicated Loan of about $1.3 billion,†the minister added.
According to Oppong-Nkrumah, the move forms part of government’s expectation of “quick stabilisation” of the economy.
A recent currency performance ranking by Bloomberg showed that the cedi was classified as the worst performing currency in the world after Sri Lanka’s Rupee.
The Bank of Ghana has assured that it is implementing measures including increasing foreign currency (FX) supplies to banks in the short term to help meet growing FX demands for external payments.