President Akufo-Addo has said that the relevant State Agencies will deal with persons who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods about the Cedi which result in panic in the system.
Akufo-Addo said the recent turbulence in the financial market was caused by low inflows of foreign exchange and was made worse in the last two to three weeks by the activities of speculators and the black market.
In his televised address to the nation on the economic hardship on Sunday, he said some steps have been taken to restore order in the forex market.
Akufo-Addo said, “we will not relent until the order is completely restored.”
To stabilise the cedi, the President outlined the following which has been taken thus fail-producing supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensure that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector;
2) Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
3) the Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
4) Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and
5) the Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.
“I am confident that these immediate measures designed to change the structure of our balance of payment flows, sanitise the foreign exchange market to ensure that the banks and forex bureaus operate along international best practices, together with strengthened supervision, will go a long way to sanitize our foreign exchange market and make it more resilient against external vulnerabilities going forward.”
