Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo is under immense pressure by his own parliamentarians to sack Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for poor management of the economy. The signs have been on the wall for long, but no one anticipated that on Tuesday 25 October, about 80 lawmakers out of 137 of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in parliament, would dare the president to let his longest-serving head of treasury take an early leave else they will boycott government business. Ghana is under pressure to reverse an economic slide that rolls back recent gains that had seen the country rated as one of the world’s fastest growing markets. The Bank of Ghana has reportedly raised $84 million from the procedure so far. But the move appears to be squeezing the local currency market aggravating the cedi’s devaluation, according to JPMorgan, the investment bank. The cedi has lost at least 52% to the dollar this year (as of Oct. 20) making it the worst performing of 148 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Aiming to stem its currency’s year-long spiral, Ghana’s central bank has taken a range of measures in the last two months including a crackdown with security operatives on supposedly unlicensed black market sellers on the streets of Accra. But the monetary overseer may have to scrutinize its own actions to understand the cedi’s precarious state.
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA