The Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah says the press conference organized by the Minority in Parliament to address the state of the economy and the challenges facing the Cedi is the usual wrong prediction.

“At first, the Minority said there will be famine like it happened in 1983 but now there is bounty harvest of food stuffs and if today they are giving another prediction of the economy, we don’t have any response for them but we will continue to work to ensure that our economy is boosted enough to create jobs for the teaming youth in the country”, he said on Peace FM Evening News.

In a counter media briefing immediately after the Minority has done same in the Parliament House on Wednesday, Hon. Oppong Nkrumah said nothing better was offered by the Minority as an alternative way to help appreciate the falling Cedi.

“The substance of their presentation today, essentially, is that the cedi has depreciated and importers have taken a hit. This is an already acknowledged point and government has already been working how to address the situation.

“The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has outlined its short term measures. The Finance Minister announced medium-term measures and today you are beginning to see a gradual recovery of the Ghanaian cedi”, he hinted.



“So the cedi is gradually making a comeback and this minority attempts to take political jabs is a bit late in the day,” the Ofoase-Ayirebi lawmaker observed.

The Minority used their press conference to call on the government to present a new budget to Parliament, as the November 2018 one presented cannot be relied on “as the true blueprint upon which the economy is managed.”

Citing last week’s sharp depreciation of the cedi, its spokesperson on Finance, Ato Forson said the development has “thrown the economy in disarray and the projections surrounding it as contained in the 2019 budget.

“This has, therefore, undermined the confidence in the economy which is also sending wrong signals to the investor community. This calls for urgent steps to be taken by government to restore the economy,” he added.

But Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah found their suggestions comical, especially at a time when the cedi has begun a gradual bounce back against its major trading currency, the dollar due to measures put in place by the Bank of Ghana and the government.

He also accused the Minority of making claims that always tend to be untrue, “You recall the Minority’s claim that literally Ghana has been sold to Franklin Templeton in the first issuance of the $2.25 bond and all the brouhaha that followed, which was totally unfounded. You recall the Minority’s claim that the ESLA bond transaction was going to be a failure and again at the end of it, in terms of the numbers that came, that was also unfounded”.

He is confident that the recent efforts being made by government, in addition to the issuance of the $3 billion bond “as well as some of the other medium-term items that have been outlined will lead to an eventual reversal of the recent shocks that the currency has suffered.”