The Cedi will recover in a few weeks – The Minister of Finance



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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said the Cedi would begin to appreciate the major currencies over the next two weeks. "The turnaround will occur and the situation will be fairly stable," said Ofori-Atta.

He said that a total of $ 4.6 billion would be injected into the system before the second quarter of the year.

Ofori-Atta told reporters in Accra yesterday that the government was expecting COCOBOD funding of about $ 900 million and additional $ 750 million in bridge financing to cover short-term government expenditures.

"As we speak, we have launched our euro bond, which is officially close to $ 3 billion," said Ofori-Atta.

Cedi no cheaper

In disagreement with some of the international news portals claiming that the cedi was the least expensive currency on the continent, Ofori-Atta said the economy was doing well despite the recent depreciation of the cedi.

For example, he said that inflation was one digit and that growth was 6%.

He stated that it was not healthy for Ghanaians to repeat the claim that the cedi was the cheapest on the continent, adding that "the truth is to look at the fundamentals".

The budget deficit, he explained, had decreased.

He added that the Cedi had experienced a similar upheaval until the government met the $ 2.2 billion obligation in 2017.

According to him, the strengthening of the US dollar last year also resulted in a depreciation of about 8% of the national currency.

He added that the conclusion of the IMF program had made some investors uncomfortable, while ensuring that the government was doing its best to stabilize the cedi.

Cedi depreciation

The cedi has depreciated by 8.5% since January 2019.

Currency badysts say investors are withdrawing their money from the country, causing the value of the currency to fall.

The other problem is the feeling that the banking crisis has caused people to keep money on banks.

Instead of investing in some instruments, people buy dollars to keep them. This increases the demand.

Paperless system

Earlier, Mr. Ofori-Atta had answered questions from the Assembly.

Responding to a question by Adklu's Member of Parliament, Mr. Kwame Governs Agbodza, on whether the paperless system had increased the cost of doing business, Ofori-Atta said that It would rather reduce the cost of business activities by 75%.

Providing statistics in support of his request, Mr. Ofori-Atta said that his team, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority (GPHA), and the Ghana Freight Forwarders Association had a comparative badysis of the costs of the activity and set up a paperless regime in the port, which showed that commercial activities in the port had increased from seven to three, resulting in a 75% reduction in activities.

Payment at GCB

Responding to a question from the Bolgatanga Central MP, Mr. Isaac Adongo, on the amount that the government had paid for the recovery of badets and liabilities of UT and Capital Banks, the Minister of Finance said: "The Government of Ghana has issued two separate bond certificates (A & B) with a face value of 1,600,284,292.18 GH ¢ and 2,201,280,634.00 GH ¢ and the due dates of which are December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2027 respectively. "

MOMO Transactions

He also told the Chamber that the value of mobile money transactions has risen from GH ¢ 594 million to GH ¢ 2.2 billion in the last five years.

"This is an area that is increasingly having a positive impact on the lives of our citizens and the government will work to ensure that other Ghanaians take full advantage of this platform," said Ofori-Atta. .

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