Business News of Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Source: The Finder

The cedi will bounce back soon – Sipa Yankey

Dr. George Sipa Adjah Yankey, Chief Executive of the Ghana National Gas Company (GNCC) at Atuabo in the Western Region, has assured Ghanaians that the country’s depreciating currency and slow growth of the economy will soon be a history.

He said when commercial activities of the company kicks off, 75% of that market would have been covered and the dollar equivalent being used to import the product would remain in the country to shore up the cedi and the economy in general.

Speaking to The Finder on the sidelines of President Mahama’s recent visit to the GNGC, Dr Yankey explained that the importation of crude oil and gas to power the nation’s thermal plants is causing the nation a fortune and “now that we will be depending on our own gas, we would be saving as much as US$500,000 and this would be serious reduction of import cover to shore up the exchange rate and ultimately boost the country’s export cover.”

He said beyond gas, there were other equally important capital-intensive projects currently being executed which when completed would introduce elements of change in driving the performance of the cedi.

“Ghanaians would soon see the enormous impact of the many ongoing development projects being carried out by the Mahama administration.

“These projects would soon yield results capable of addressing the fiscal infractions causing the poor performance of the currency against the major global trading currencies,” he stressed.

Dr Yankey, also blamed the excessive importation of essential goods and services for the weak performance of the cedi.