Talking down the cedi is largely contributing to its struggles - NPP
Richard Ahiagbah, NPP National Communications director
Richard Ahiagbah, the National Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, is concerned about the continued depreciation of the Ghana cedi.
Read full articleHe is equally concerned about what he describes as 'talking down' the currency which is currently the worst against the US dollar globally according to a Bloomberg report.
"The widespread talking down of the cedi is contributing largely to the struggle of the cedi. The technical word for it is speculation. The speculation must stop," he tweeted on Friday, October 21.
His tweet was in reaction to a description of the cedi as 'worthless' in a news reportage by Accra-based TV3.
Ahiagbah was echoing a similar concern raised by a leading member of the NPP, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who had in a series of Facebook posts warned against how journalists especially describe the cedi.
Gabby holds that whenever journalists report negatively on the cedi, they become accessories to fuel speculation about the currency and thus become complicit in its depreciation.
He wrote in a Facebook post on October 20 thus: "Journalists can report and influence. But where the default mode is to influence negatively, such media houses run the risk of becoming partners in speculation.
"It is not the job of journalists and analysts to fix the cedi; but fixing it is not helped if they make it more their job to fuel speculations.
"The cedi may be worth 60% less now than what it was to the US dollar last year. But it is not worthless! My sympathies go to the many, many businesses and consumers out there who simply do not know where to turn," the post added.
His comments come a day after Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta appealed against panic and unnecessary rush to get the dollar. he, however, described the depreciation of the cedi as 'perplexing.'
SARA/PEN
