Bawumia’s claim that he arrested the Cedi was factual – Dr Gideon Boako
Dr Gideon Boako, spokesperson for Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has supported Dr Bawumia’s claim that the Akufo-Addo administration had arrested the falling of the cedi against major currencies.
He argued that the claim was valid back in the Akufo-Addo administration’s first term, the management of the cedi was better than the Mahama-led administration.
“The context in which the Vice President spoke at the time was not wrong,” Dr Boako maintained.
“He [Bawumia] was talking about the rate of deprecation…, if any economist is commenting, it was right for the economist to say that the speed at which the currency depreciates has slowed down,” Dr Boako said.
“So if he [Bawumia] says we have arrested the rate of depreciation at the time, the evidence and data at the time supported that… so that was a factual statement to make. But as to whether or not you can hold on to that is something else,” he added.
Dr Boako also said the statement “passed the test of truth.”
“The fact that he made a factual statement is factual. That is data. If you are speaking to data, you speak to data,” he said.
The last year has seen the cedi lose more ground to the dollar at an alarming rate.
Information from the Bank of Ghana reveals that the cedi depreciated by about 14.6% to the US dollar within the first quarter of 2022, while Bloomberg described the Ghana cedi as the worst-performing currency on the global market.
Dr Bawumia during his recent speech blamed the situation of the cedi largely on negative credit ratings, challenges in getting the 2022 budget passed, and the refusal of investors to roll over their monies in Ghana’s economy among others.
