Churches are partly responsible for the fall of the cedi – Dr. Frimpong

General News of Saturday, March 30, 2019

Source: yen.com.gh

2019-03-30

The depreciation of the Ghana cedi in relation to its main commercial currencies is partly attributed to the churches and the way they manage their finances.

Dr. Samuel Kwadwo Frimpong, Senior Economic Advisor to Ghana's Vice President, attributes the current weakness of the cedi to major commercial currencies, at least in part, to the financial decisions made by Ghana's churches.

Dr. Frimpong, in a report from YEN.com.gh seen on Starrfm.com.gh, claimed that most churches in Ghana converted their income (from religious offerings) to dollars, and then transferred the amounts to dollars on foreign currency accounts.

The vice president's economic adviser noted that a careful badysis of the cedi's performance on Mondays and Tuesdays shows that the currency is depreciating slightly, a phenomenon that it links to churches carrying out foreign exchange operations after the offices. of Sunday.

In an interview with freelancer Odame Agyare for a show that has not yet been created, Dr. Frimpong said, "Many churches in Ghana do not have their headquarters here.

Thus, their collections, their offerings and their tithes are converted into dollars and transferred to forex accounts. "

"Recently, we studied and noticed that on Mondays and Tuesdays, the conversion rate from cedi to dollars is increasing. As a Christian and economist, I think it is also a contributing factor. "

He was, however, optimistic measures being deployed to strengthen the Cedi against the dollar will yield positive results.

The argument put forward by Dr. Frimpong may seem far-fetched from the ordinary Ghanaian, whose most pressing concern is the daily bread.

But in a country that is literally littered with churches, it's hard to argue that the collective financial decisions made by these churches do not affect the overall performance of the currency.