President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Dr. Humphrey Ayim-Darke, has emphasized the need for government to put in place measures to increase exports and reduce imports into the country.

According to him, this will check the rate of depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the dollar.

Currently, the Ghana cedi is the worst-performing currency among Africa’s top currencies with a little over two months into 2022.

This is because it has depreciated by about 7.6% to the dollar from January 1 to February 25, 2022.

Speaking on the Point of View, he blamed traders importing finished goods for contributing to the struggles of the Cedi.

“By virtue of their [traders] deeds, bringing only finished products, if you look at the value chain of value addition, it is limited. They don’t create enough jobs and the turnaround of their funds in the value chain is short. When you bring in raw materials, the value chain is longer,” he said.

Mr. Ayim-Darke noted further that this “affects the exchange rate in terms of the deficit the BoG [Bank of Ghana] needs to shore up the currency.”