Cedi To Stablize As Ghana leaves IMF Programme – Osafo Maafo

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has explained the cause of the recent slump in the local currency, saying it was as a result of strenuous effort by government to successfully exit the external credit facility (ECF) under the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said since Saturday, March 16, a government delegation has been preparing to meet their IMF counterparts over the exit by Ghana from the facility.

After the meeting on Wednesday, March 20, Mr Osafo Marfo confirmed, Ghana exited the programme with the Cedi starting to appreciate.

“I can say with confidence that the Cedi will remain stable for quite some time,” the former Finance Minister stressed. He made this known on Thursday at the annual conference of the Ghana Insurance Brokers Association in Kumasi.

He said government will turn its attention of reforms from the banking sector to the insurance sector, therefore urging insurance firms to consider merging if necessary. “As government, we are taking tough decisions to sanitize the banking sector. We will soon sanitize the insurance sector also because the two move together”.

The Senior Minister confirmed that Ghana has successfully exited the IMF programme entered into in 2015 by the erstwhile administration.

“So now we are masters of our own economy,” he stated. “And that makes a big difference.”

He explained that before the country exited the programme, she was made to meet seven prior actions.

“And a couple of the prior actions were inimical to the currency stabilisation and that was the cause to the immediate, within the last month, rapid depreciation of the Cedi.”

But he assured that the efforts made by government to stabilize the currency will pay off.