Ghana’s currency the cedi has suffered significant depreciation this year sparking debates among Ghanaians.
The cedi in February suffered a record fall against the U.S dollar and other major foreign currencies.
That significantly affected Ghana’s bonds offered to international investors.
At the time the currency depreciated by 8.6 percent representing the highest among over 140 currencies tracked by financial experts.
But last week there was much controversy over the value of the cedi when Google’s currency converter showed that Ghanaians needed 22 cedis to buy a dollar.
In reality one requires a little over five cedis to buy a dollar.
Google has now apologised to Ghana’s finance ministry and central bank for what it says was an error on its currency converter.
In a letter Google blamed the error on a “minor glitch” which has since been “quickly fixed”.
The depreciation of the cedi is a major issue in Ghana. It was a campaign issue in the 2016 elections with the current government promising to fix it.
Local media Joy News reported shared a video of Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo Addo blamed the weak performance of the cedi on high importation.
“we are overly dependent on the importation of things for our daily sustenance” he said stressing the impact of such a trend on the value of the currency.
CEDI DEPRECIATION: ‘We live in a country where we are overly dependent on the importation of things for our daily sustenance’ – Pres. @NAkufoAddo .#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/jGGoiW5Yme
— #JoyNews (@JOYNEWSONTV) March 20, 2019
But finding a solution to the problem seems daunting with the country’s manufacturing sector inactive.
When the cedi falls against the dollar it affects prices of commodities and general trading in Ghana.
Source: Africafeeds.com
