Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia underscored the importance of major policy changes in the wake of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Once those [negotiations with the IMF] are concluded, it will be clear that it will not be, and it should not be business as usual because we have to adjust to the new global and domestic realities,” the Vice President said.

For one, he said the nature of production needs to change because Ghana has more trade surpluses and current count deficits, “which means that a lot of the foreign exchange that we are earning from our trade doesn’t stay in Ghana.”

Vice President Bawumia also said Ghana would be working to reduce import dependency to address Ghana’s forex problems.

“It [forex] is quite loose and that is why we are going to be working to see how we can tighten the foreign exchange.”

Ghana’s global-worst depreciating currency has been noted as one of the main causes of inflation amid the current economic crisis.

Vice President Bawumia said the President would address the nation in the near future, where the government’s plan “will be fleshed out in specifics.”

“More importantly, if we are going to address this, this economy must be digitalized,” the Vice President added.

He was speaking at the Standard Chartered digital banking Innovation & Fintech Festival in Accra.