The deputy minister of finance, Dr. Stephen Amoah, has hinted that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), will design a long-term national framework if elected president in order to combat and reverse the severe depreciation of the Cedi against the US dollar.

In an interview on Wednesday, May 28, the Nhyiaeso MP stated that the “Cedi depreciation is a ritual problem” and that Ghana’s feeble foreign exchange market needs to be strengthened by someone with an impressive financial background like Dr. Bawumia.

A number of trade unions and members of the business community have expressed concern recently about the unchecked decline of the Cedi relative to the US dollar, claiming that this is having a detrimental impact on the cost of conducting business. They have therefore petitioned the government to find a long-term solution to the currency’s decline.

In order for Dr. Bawumia to “design a long-term framework to deal with the Cedi [depreciation],” Dr. Amoah urged Ghanaians to elect him president on December 7 in an interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM.

He attributed the Cedi’s problems to over-importation and said that, as a temporary fix, the government is now working on stabilizing the currency.

“We are doing our best to stabilise the Cedi, which I said is a short-term approach, but we need a long-term approach to resolve the issue through a framework, and then I proposed that to achieve that, we will design a long-term approach when Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is elected president.”