Cedi Depreciation: Government urged to enforce laws on pricing in dollars
The Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Dr. Antoinette Tsiboe Darko is calling on the appropriate authorities to speedily put in place measures to reduce the dollarisation in the economy.
According to her, the pricing of goods and services in dollars is a structural defect which has worsen the economic challenges confronting the country.
She compares the situation to our neighboring francophone countries and maintains that the CFA appreciates better than the Cedi.
Speaking on the Big Issues on Citi TV, she said, “We have structural issues which speak to the issues we are currently facing. We have a dollarized economy. It is something that has historically gone with us and we keep going along with it. When you go into a Francophone country, it is the CFA that comes to fore when you want to buy something but how come that in Ghana it is the dollar that is mentioned first?. This is something that we have to fight to make sure that the dollar economy is minimized so that we can have confidence in our own cedi”, she said.
Dr. Tsiboe Darko also stressed that human development is key in ensuring that the country achieves certain growth rate.
“Unfortunately what free SHS and TVET has done are things we won’t identify the profit immediately. We will see the benefits and positive results probably in the next ten or fifteen years. This is when we see a whole generation going into entrepreneurial and technical production and be able to contribute to the growth of the economy.”
She however did not underestimate the shocks the economy has suffered after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impasse between Russia and Ukraine.
She opines that the global trade market has become very competitive as result of the unrest between the two European countries.
“Due to the payments plans, if we don’t up our plans our suppliers will give their supply to any country that has funds to pay”
On revenue mobilization, she suggests that the country has to place prominence on internal revenue generation. This she tied up to the electronic levy (e-levy).
“The issues about internal revenue I think have been neglected for long and it actually demands that we take intentional measures to get ourselves out of this, and the impasse on this topic in parliament has also not helped the situation”
Source: Ghana Business
