Opinions of Sunday, 28 September 2014

Columnist: Newtron-Offei, Abeeku

The cedi’s ephemeral gain in value and its dyer consequence

When the cedi went absolutely berserk by way of unprecedented tail-spin and plummeted to its lowest value, ever, against all major world currencies, illiterate propagandists of NDC were in the villages telling people that the cedi had rather gained value and that was why any little dollar sent to them by relatives abroad actually exchanged for plenty cedis.

In the cities also, their so-called learned but completely bereft of common-sense misinformants went over-drive with abject ludicrous reasons of why the cedi had lost value; and some of these were attributed to springing-up of high-rise buildings, NPP business men/women buying all the dollars and hiding it under their beds, activities of dwarfs, massive numbers of prostitutes in the system and so on.

Now, the cedi gains some few pesewas in value lately, and these very NDC insipid propagandists have started spinning completely out-of-control, claiming some completely non-existent measures put in-place by the government is what is doing the trick.

However, the true picture on the ground is simply this; we have recently floated government bonds which yielded $1b and $1.2b cash for seasonal cocoa purchases has also landed. As a result, there has been a sudden injection of foreign cash into the system and this is what has created what I would term as a purely EPHEMERAL confidence in the economy with its equally flash-in-the-pan stabilization in value of the cedi.

Now, the recent flotation of bond on the internal market which earned us $1b that these NDC propagandists are frantically shouting over the roof-tops about and are straining their voices so much to the point of risking scrotal-hernias, was actually abstained at an astronomically astronomic astronomical interest rate of 8.2%, when Kenya and South Africa recently floated theirs at meager interest rate of 6.2% and 5% respectively.

Effectively, the current mirage of stabilization in the value of the cedi, actually presents the good people of Ghana with the following CALAMITOUSLY CALAMITOUS CALAMITIES;

1. Further mounting debts by way of huge interest rate on the $1b bond and that of the cocoa cash. 2. Much of these loans will be misapplied

3. Some of the cash will be wasted on unproductive ventures

4. The rest will be pumped into projects with over-bloated costs

5. And the remaining will be lost by way of out-right thievery.

So in the final analysis, these high-interest loans will end up in the pockets of NDC government appointees and other state/public officials, there will be no benefits for ordinary Ghanaians, our debt portfolio will continue mounting, the cedi will ultimately fine its real size by rapidly dropping in value and ordinary Ghanaians will continue to bear the cross of such damn brainless decisions by these vision-bereft bunch of NDC CROOKEDLY CROOKED CROOKS!!!

Justice Abeeku Newtron-Offei

E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com