Ghana in Focus Special: Currency Woes in Ghana - Understanding the Cedi's Depreciation and Path Forward

Discover the true culprits behind the Ghanaian cedi's downward spiral in a candid discussion that goes beyond the usual suspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

I'm Kwame, your guide through the complex economic landscape of Ghana, bringing you a narrative that's not just about the numbers but the lives they reflect.

We'll navigate through the government's policy effects over the last five years, highlighting how periods of sharp fluctuation have impacted everything from taxi fares to school fees, and what policy shifts could potentially anchor the cedi's value.

As we peel back the layers of Ghana's fiscal challenges, you'll learn how the cessation of the IMF program and the government's borrowing habits sparked a domino effect, culminating in the cedi's significant depreciation.

The story doesn't end at the currency exchange rate; we explore the real-life consequences, such as the dollarization pressures that have citizens scrambling for dollars for major expenses.

Join me in dissecting the economic mismanagement and untangling the web of multinational companies' profit retention, as we propose robust solutions to keep profits within Ghana's borders, reinforcing its economy and the cedi's stability.

Sources:

USDGHS US Dollar Ghanaian Cedi - Currency Exchange Rate Live Price Chart (tradingeconomics.com)

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to this week's edition of Ghana in Focus. I'm myself Kwame, ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist, podcaster and entrepreneur, and in this week's edition of Ghana in Focus is a special the city in free fall, problems, challenges and solutions. So that's what we're looking at today the city's rapid free fall, particularly during the start of the year, and what can be done to arrest the free fall of the city. Alright, so before we get into the podcast, if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, family, social media networks and you can also subscribe to the Ghana Africa in Focus podcast on YouTube. We're also on YouTube as well. We want to get as many as we can subscribers as we can. So please subscribe to the Ghana, africa in Focus podcast on Spotify and sorry, on YouTube also. You can Focus Podcast on Spotify. Sorry, on YouTube Also. You can get us on Spotify. So if we've got 470 followers on Spotify, we're going to try to get to 800 by the end of the year. So if you have not subscribed to Ghana Africa in Focus on Spotify, please do and just look for Ghana Africa and focus on Spotify. Click on the follow button, meaning that you'll be notified every time I upload a new podcast. All right, and, despite the business coming to Ghana, if you're wanting to come to Ghana to do business, buy property, buy land, et cetera we do offer a consulting session where you can, you know, tailor, make a package for yourself based on your needs and wants. So if you are wanting to come to Ghana to do business, any form of business, start up a new business, start up, buy land, buy property then you know, please contact myself and I'll leave you my email address in the front of the show and you can contact me to book your consultation and we can see what we can do for you.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Alright, so let us get into this podcast looking at the free fall of the city. So the big talking point in Ghana is the, once again, the next issue of the rapid depreciation of the city. Now, you know why have the Ghana city depreciated again? You know, following some apparent in quote stabilization, what can be done, what are some of the issues that affect the the city dollar ratio? You know, and also what can be done to try and stop the Ghana city from just falling apart. Yeah, so all this we'll be trying to analyse and unpack in this week's podcast. So you know, over the last, say, a couple of months, the city has rapidly again depreciated against the dollar. So before we actually go into some of the nuances of why that's happening, let's go back and do like a trajectory on the city. So I've got been able to get some a graph and I might leave it in the fun the front of the show where you can do your own analysis. So I've got here a tracker that shows the performance of the city in the last five years.

Speaker 1: 3:39

Ok, and you know people out there will say you know, it's the Russian-Ukraine war, offsets of that also COVID. No, I'm going to show you why it's not. You can't blame the city free fall to either COVID or Russian-Ukraine war, because even let's go back, even 2020, or let's say, january 21, when this government was sworn in for its second term. So January 21, this government was sworn in for a second term. Yep, so January 21,.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Look at the chart. Right, the Ghana city January 21 was 5.8 to a dollar. So one dollar equals 5.8 Ghana cities. This is in January 2021. So that is way after Covid, yeah, so Covid hit Ghana March 2020 and there was lockdown in Ghana. Point eight Ghana cities. This is in January 2021. So that is way after COVID.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Yeah, so COVID hit Ghana March 2020 and the lockdown in Ghana opened to about, you know. So COVID came to Ghana March 2020. Ghana lockdown in in in April, had more than a few people locked down just internally, and Ghana came out of lockdown, you know, in May, june of that year. Yeah, and also externally, ghana opened the borders to international travel in September of even 2020, yeah, so you can't blame Cape Florida for the fall of the city, because even at that point, if you get back into 2020, when Ghana lifted the border externally to allow external customers into the country, we look at September 2020, it was 5.75, yeah, to a dollar, so one US dollar was five cities, 75 pesos, and in January, when this government, you know, was sworn in for a second term, right, so 5.75 to 5.95, that's not much of a great increase at all. Yeah, so you see the currency was stable, right, and then we go into into 22. So let's check.

Speaker 1: 5:54

So, January 21,. It was 5.95 to a dollar, so one dollar was 5.95 per service in January 2021. At the end of that year, december 2021, it was 5.93. Yeah, so it's stabilised. It virtually moved from 5.95 in January to 5.93 in December 21. Yeah. So basically, it was basically moved, it basically stabilised that whole year.

Speaker 1: 6:42

So this is well, this is deep into Covid, so you can't blame Covid for that. Yeah, so we now move on and this is where it gets interesting. So January 2022 right, it was still under 60 to a dollar 5.97, right, and then it moves up a bit to a dollar 5.97. Right, and then it moves up a bit. So by Independence Day in March, right from 5.95 in January, 6.1 in March, which is still not too bad. Yeah, so March 2022, it was 6.2 12 pessimists to the US dollar. Then it goes up again. Not that much, right, because even in August, so March was 6.2, 1.1.2. August 2022 6.9. So we're now getting to $7.6 for a dollar. Now, alright.

Speaker 1: 7:49

And then September, october 22, it was $7.6 a dollar and then it peaked. So it peaked. So October 22 was winning to $7.6 a dollar, and then it peaked. So October 22 was 177, seven cities a dollar. And then it peaked, right, november 2022, out of basically 14 Ghana cities. So that's a steep curve. So October, so September, no, let's go back to August. August of 2022, it was nine cities to a dollar, august of 2022. And then, by the end of the year, november, november, it was between that 14 cities to a dollar. That's how it peaked, and then it went down again in December of that year to eight cities.

Speaker 1: 8:47

So something's going on here and I'll tell you what's going on here, why the city went up and down, particularly during the back end of 2021 and most of 2022. Why it went up and down, up and down. But then, you know, it sort of arrived again in 23, so January 23, but then, you know, it started to rise again in 23. So January 23, we're looking at, you know, from the high of 14 cities in November 2022, it went down, it went down, it went down. So by January 23, that year, it went to about 9.4, 9.4 cities per US dollar. Yeah, and it's gradually going up since then, where now, today, may 2024, is back up to 14.5 to a dollar. So it's even worse now than what it was, you know, 2022 November, when it was 14 cities to a dollar. So there are certain nuances at play that are going on that are making that is making the city depreciate a lot against the dollar. Now I'm going to tell you some key factors as to why you know the city is playing up against the dollar.

Speaker 1: 10:20

One of those is importation. Ghana virtually imports everything, and if you listen to one of my podcasts that I did about the economy of Ghana, I did mention that importation is a massive, massive issue for the economy of Ghana. Ghana, basically, is the importer of the economy. Yeah, we don't make that much, if anything. And so you know, when we import toothpick, second hand clothes, tyres, fridges, white goods, you know, food, rice right, these things are bought in US dollars.

Speaker 1: 10:58

And so Ghana, the government, as well as those people who are importing yeah, it's not just the government to import stuff into the country. It is private business women and business men that import the rice into the country, the yam into the country, the second hand TVs into the country, the imported cars, etc. Etc. These are private individuals that are doing this. So when they are buying these, you know goods and services into Ghana, they've got to use their Ghana cities to buy dollars and say, for example, if you were a business person in Ghana, let's say let me give you an example of what I'm trying to actually mean by this.

Speaker 1: 11:42

So, in August of 2022, right, you're a business person, you know doing, you know importing to Ghana, you would buy a dollar at 9.6. Yeah, however, september 2023, right. So 9.6, that's now gone to 9.9 A year in September 23. So you're paying more For your dollar than you were In September 23. And now, if you are imported in Ghana, you are paying 14 cities to a dollar. Yeah, so for every dollar that you Buy, you're going to have dollar. Yeah, so for every dollar that you buy, you're going to have to fork out 14 cities for your passwords, meaning that the goods that we import in the country is costing more for us as Guineans, because we need to change more of our local currency, of the city to buy a dollar. Yeah, to buy all this in Portugal into the country.

Speaker 1: 12:57

So solution one if you stopped importing, yeah, that will put a lot less stress on our city, because we wouldn't need to change that much cities to get US dollars. And so solution number one stop importing and start making goods. Yeah, so the government apparently had a policy to industrialise Ghana, you know, so that Ghana can make things under the one district, one factory, and I know whoa. We know that some factories have been built, but the capacity of these factories has been limited, and so we're not exporting as much as we need to do in order to, you know, rake in foreign currency that can help stabilize our currency. So, solution number one Ghana needs to stop importing things and making what it imports. There's no need for Ghana to import things like rice, sugar, salt, you know, toothpick, toilet roll, toilet roll. We can make these things ourselves in Ghana, so there's no need for that.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Now, issue number two is that and this is what a lot of Ghanaian broadcasters and journalists have not really caught on another reason why the city is not doing well against the dollar is because the government, since Ghana re-denominated the city in 2007 so, for those of you who don't know, ghana denominated the value of its currency, you know. So it re-denominated the value of the currency. And so you know, between 2007, when the city was re-denominated, until 2008, under the last MPP government, the city dollar was basically parity, even parity one to one. Until 2008, under the last MPP government, yeah, the city dollar was basically parity, even parity one to one. And the reason why it was one to one? Yeah, because the government economy is the same. It's still an import-led economy. Yeah, we still, you know, are a producer of raw materials yeah, where other people come, and producer of raw materials, yeah, where other people come and buy the raw materials to make finished goods and sell it back to us at a little bit of prices. That is the economy today as it was in 2008.

Speaker 1: 15:24

But the reason why the key reason why, yeah and this explains why this is going up and down, up and down and now it's in free fall is because the government is going up and down, up and down and now it's in free fall is because the government of Ghana has a policy of basically borrowing money to buy US dollars to prop up our currency. That is a stupid idea, but this is what has been the policy of the bank of Ghana in turning with the government of Ghana to prop up our city. So they buy US dollars or they borrow money, they borrow dollars and then they buy dollars to keep our currency on some kind of parity. And this is why, you know, particularly in 2007-2008, it was basically $1 to one city or one city to one dollar. And also, like I mentioned, between 2020 and around 2020, early 2022, the currency was very stable, and that's because of, again, the government was buying dollars to pop up the city and also the government had just come out of an IMF program. So there was an IMF program for three years, between 2016 and 2019. Yeah, this government inherited the IMF program when it came to office in 2017. So, between 2017 and 2019, the city also was very, very, very, very, very stable, because the government could not spend as much as it wanted to do in those two years because of the conditions of the IMF program.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Yeah, now, once the IMF program stopped in 2020, yeah, in 2020, yeah, and also when the government of Ghana was not allowed to borrow money because, again, the reason why the currency was stable up until 2022 was because the government was borrowing money, too much money to do a lot of things, one of which was to keep up, pop up the currency of the city to make it parity. So now, because government had borrowed all this money, particularly to pop up the city, yeah, it had now been, you know, ostracized by the international borrowing community and also by the international borrowing community and also by the Eurobonds. So Ghana could not borrow any more money because it had already borrowed more than it can afford to pay back. And so because now Ghana is not allowed to buy or borrow money. In that example, they borrowed money and bought dollars to profit the city. That's now stopped. They can't now borrow money from the international money markets and also from the Eurobonds. Yeah, because this government already has borrowed yeah, in excess of one sorry, in excess of $11 dollars from the euro bond market alone 11 billion dollars, right, and you ask yourself what has been done with that money that they borrowed from euro bonds? But that's for another time. And so, because government now cannot borrow money to buy us dollars to profit the city, the city now is in free fall. So that explains why, since the back end of 2022, when you picked up 14 yeah to a city to a dollar, rather then went down in January 2023, since then that's when the city has faced rapid, rapid, rapid, you know. So, from the back end of 2023, it was basically 10 Ghana cities and now it's 14.5 Ghana cities to a dollar, but that's because the CDS now because the government can't borrow money to buy dollars. You see, now it's in free fall, yeah, and that's what we see at the moment.

Speaker 1: 19:31

And so, like I said, one solution is to stop importation of everything that we do in ghana. Second aspect, yeah, that again a lot of commentators haven't commented about, is the dollarization of our economy. Yeah, so, like I mentioned before about the importers, yeah, but now again something that I've mentioned on previous occasions a lot of things in ghana are priced in dollars when it should not be so. You want to buy a house in ghana? Right, we live in ghana, not america, by the way, you want to buy a house in ghana? You got to pay in us dollars. You want to buy land, even even land, some parts of Accra, even outskirts of Accra, yeah, like Ayia Mensah, like Uyayfa. Going on to the eastern region, even Ebre Ebre is in the eastern region, ebre right, us dollars for land. Even in parts of Comassey.

Speaker 1: 20:34

I hear that you know, people are charging dollars for land. That is pure greed, because land should not be charged in US dollars. There is no reason why Ghanaians should be selling land in US dollars Again. Some of these big schools in Ghana, some of these international schools, like Morningstarstar, christ the King, gis, lincoln College, um Al Ryan, islamic School, etc. Etc. Some of these top schools in Ghana are charging, again, us dollars. Again. There is no need for any school in Ghana to be charging US dollars Because, like I said, we don't live in America. And what is the justification For charging school fees in US dollars, again, in Ghana, you want to buy a car, yeah, even a second hand car, not even a new car.

Speaker 1: 21:31

You want to buy a car in Ghana? You got to pay US dollars. Yeah, again, you wanna, you know, stay in a hotel for a weekend, you know, with your missus, with your wife or your boyfriend or girlfriend. Right again, most hotels in Ghana, particularly Accra, charge US dollars. You want to, uh, even rent a property in Ghana, particularly Accra, kumasi, particularly the Athlum areas yeah, you will pay US dollars.

Speaker 1: 22:09

And so these are all mitigated circumstances as to why the city is not stable. Because if you're paying, you know you're buying a house in US dollars. When you live in Ghana, you have to buy, you have to change your Ghana cities. So if somebody's selling a house for equivalent of, let's say, 200,000 US dollars, say 200,000 US dollars, 200,000 US dollars In today's rate, that is about 2.8 to 3 million Ghana cities. So you, as a Ghanaian who does not earn dollars, you've got to get dollars by buying dollars with your Ghana cities. Yeah, so if you want to buy a property for that 200,000 dollars, you're going to have to spend between 2.8 million and 3 million Ghana cities. Yeah, so if you want to buy a property for that $200,000, you're going to have to spend between 2.8 million and 3 million Ghana cities just to get that $200,000 so you can buy the property, because most real estate developers, real estate agents, will not accept Ghana cities as currency for buying houses.

Speaker 1: 23:11

Again, if you're a parent in Ghana and you're sending your child to one of these international schools where they are charging, for example, $2,000 a term, again, if you are working in Ghana and you are saying you know the creator and the answer to guide, you are and you're able to earn, let's say, 10,000 Ghana cities. You know a month in Ghana, you have to use some of that 10,000 cities to buy US dollars in order to pay your child's school fees of $2,000. Again, you want to buy a decent car in Ghana. Yeah, you have to pay equivalent to, say, $10,000 upwards to buy a decent car in Ghana. So, again, if you're Ghanaian and you're obviously paying in cities, not dollars, again you have to get your cities and convert your cities to dollars in order to buy a car.

Speaker 1: 24:17

So this constant demand within economy of an economy for the US dollar is also devaluing the very nature of our currency, because if you are, if you, if you are pricing school fees, rent, house purchasing, hotel fees, even I hear some restaurants are charging dollars. Right, doesn't all that? Because it's just in the city. And you wonder why? The city is in free throw? Because there's too much demand for the dollar. Because of school fees, rent, accommodation, you know, hotel buying a car, etc. There's too much demand for the dollar and very few dollars are around, yeah, and so this puts stress on the city in order to get the dollars. And so one thing that should be done in Ghana to minimise the effect of this city depreciation and this is common sense is to revert back to what it was 25 years ago pricing everything in Ghana cities. We are not living in America. People don't get paid in US dollars, so why the hell are we pricing everything Cars, second-hand cars, renting accommodation in Ghana, buying accommodation in Ghana, you know school fees why are we pricing in US dollars rather than local currency?

Speaker 1: 25:52

I can understand a property because you know a lot of these real estate developers are importing their ware. So, ie, they're importing the doors for the houses, they're importing the sanctuary for the kitchens, you know, for the bedroom, bathroom. They're importing the you know some of the kitchenware for the kitchens, like the microwave, the hubs, the cookers these are imported. Some of the security doors are being imported into Ghana. So these things add to the cost of property in Ghana. So that's why I understand why property is priced in US dollars. Even the paint that we use is imported. So I get that. But school fees, school fees, buying a car and I'll come to buying a car in a minute, buying a car, you know renting accommodation, renting property, buying a car, renting accommodation, renting property, renting hotel in US dollars.

Speaker 1: 27:01

Other things in Ghana is, and the reason why Ghanians are pricing in dollars is because of pure greed. They're justifying this by using the dollar-city ratio as an excuse to price things in dollars. So unless we stop this dollar-dollar dollarization of virtually everything in Ghana, that is going to have an effect on our currency and there will always be demand for the dollar because, out of our greed, we are desiring and designing to price things that we shouldn't price in US dollars, as opposed to Ghana cities. Now again, you know, another reason why, um, the city is unstable and I said this before is that Ghana, we don't have any gold reserves. You know, and this is pure basic economics in any country when a currency is struggling like what Ghana is experiencing, right, a country uses gold reserves to prop up its currency. But in Ghana, they use a different method. They buy dollars to prop up the currency. Isn't that a dumb idea? And so Ghana are the country we need to get gold and have. Isn't that a dumb idea? And so Ghana, other country we need to get gold and have, stored that gold right as a lever for our currency, particularly the currency is in bad times like it is now. Ghana is the biggest producer of gold in Africa, so there's no reason why there's no reason why Ghana should not have, you know, producer of gold in Africa. So there's no reason why there's no reason why Ghana should not have, you know, tons of gold stored up in the vaults of Bank of Ghana that we can use our gold reserves when our city, you know, is in crisis. And so solution number three, right, is that Ghana should get gold reserves. Yeah, the Bank of Ghana should make a policy that these mining companies, who are mining companies in Ghana should, rather than pay taxes, convert some of that gold to gold reserves and give it to the Bank of Ghana so that the Bank of Ghana can store that in the vaults of the Bank of Ghana to use that as leverage when Ghana's currency is facing difficulties as it is now.

Speaker 1: 29:22

For me, that is a big, big one that seems to be missing from many countries in Ghana the fact that Ghana has no gold reserves, and that is outrageous. That is scandalous For a country that makes naming in gold, for a country that has gold all over the country right, which is why there's this issue with illegal mining, for a country that is the biggest producer of gold in Africa. But not to have, you know, any decent size of, of, of good reserves is absolutely scandalous. And so you know, we must, we must, we must ensure that we have enough gold reserves in the, in the Bank of Ghana to evoke, to ensure that when our city, you know, depreciates like it has been doing over the last, you know, two, three years, that we can use the gold reserves to pop up the currency.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Now, for me, the final solution, or the final cause, rather, of why this is going up, is that you know, and this is an interesting thing. So we've talked about the globalization of the Ghana economy. We've talked about the fact that we import stuff. We've talked about the fact that we don't have any gold reserves, but one thing that's also causing the city right to devalue is that a lot of Ghanaians and I'm talking about basically the middle class are hoarding dollars. Yeah, so, because you know, know, they have money.

Speaker 1: 31:01

What the milk houses in Ghana have done is that they've gone to their, their forex dealer, or they've gone to their bank and bought dollars with the Ghana cities and are hoarding it. So when the dollar appears in value against the government of the city, then revert it back to dark cities and profit from it. For me, this is very, very scandalous and treacherous, because no country will allow its citizens to hoard money, particularly foreign currency. Hoard it and then allow it to become like a second kind of currency. Hoard it and then allow it to become like a second kind of currency. No, that is illegal and that is unpatriotic. For the middle upper classes in Ghana to hoard US dollars in their houses and you know keep it there Again that by doing that, that also depreciates the city as well. Yeah, and, as we found out, we've seen that her housemaid or house help stole one million US dollars from her house, because she's one of those upper-class, middle-class people in Ghana who are hoarding US dollars in their houses.

Speaker 1: 32:16

I even saw a video one time. This was, you know, this was even Lebanese. These Lebanese criminals operate in Ghana. They were going out of Ghana, you know, on the border. I don't know where they were going, but they were going out of Ghana. And, you know, a man was searching their goods and came across, you know, across some tyres, some spare tyres at the back of the car, and the man got suspicious and said there's a lot of spare tyres in the back of his car. I wonder what's in these tyres? So the man got a knife, cut the spare tyres and, lo and behold, there was US dollars stuffed in the tyres. Now, what the Libyans were doing with were US dollars stuffed in the tyres. Now, what the Liberians were doing with these US dollars, god only knows. Yeah, but that's another example of people hoarding dollars, yeah, and then trying to take it out of the country for whatever reason, yeah. So we need to put a hold on that. You know these, you know businessmen and also middle class, upper class Guineans holding US dollars in their account.

Speaker 1: 33:25

And lastly, and this is another key reason why, another key reason why Ghana City is in free fall is a lot of these businesses who operate in Ghana when they repatriate their properties out of the country. So, although I had a podcast last week saying that a lot of businesses are leaving Ghana, or some businesses are leaving Ghana, those that are remaining in Ghana, right, and are still making profits in Ghana they are ministers leave in Ghana. Those that are remaining in Ghana, right, and are still making profits in Ghana. They are repatriating their money outside the country. So what? It means that if you are a company in Ghana, for example, and you made, let's say, 10 million Ghana to this profit yeah, you are then because you're not a Ghanaian-owned company, you're a foreign company operating in Ghana. You made profit of 10 million Ghana cities. You are now going to change that 10 million cities to dollars and then take that dollars out of Ghana to your country of origin Could be England, could be Denmark, could be Sweden, could be Denmark, could be Sweden, could be Spain, could be US, could be Canada, could be Australia, could be what have you?

Speaker 1: 34:45

Yeah, so a lot of these companies operate in Ghana, yeah, don't pay a lot of taxes and also the excess profit that they make is taken out of the country in terms of capital flight, and Ghana loses revenue that way, and that's a foreign currency. So, again, solution number five is that Ghana should have a policy whereby at least 70 to 80% of the profits of these companies make stays in Ghana. These companies make stays in Ghana, yeah, because that helps also the our folk, our foreign currency currency flows, and also it helps stay above the currency, because those profits are going back into the economy of Ghana as opposed to going out of the economy of Ghana. Yeah, so these are some of the reasons and systems as to why the Ghana city is depreciating against the dollar and other currencies. In actual fact, in terms of the pound, it's even worse. The pound is 17.5 galaxies to a pound. On the street is 18 near 18 cities to a pound. That's how bad, that's how dire the currency of Ghana has become in the last two years, particularly since January or December 2022. It's just gone up ridiculously high and so, because of this, it is having an effect on everyone in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 36:16

So, whether you're a taxi driver, whether you're a taxi driver right Whether you're a truck driver, because if your car breaks down and you want to get the parts, the parts guess what are imported and the parts guess what are bought in dollars. And so when these spare part dealers, right, are buying or importing the spare parts into the country of Ghana, they've got to pay dollars for these parts and, even more crazy, they've got to pay dollars at the port to clear those goods at the port. So it's obviously that import dealer is going to put a markup when they now have to sell those goods in Ghana. To this and this affects any driver in the country is going to put a mark up when they now have to sell those goods in Ghana cities, and this affects any driver in the country.

Speaker 1: 37:05

Again, if you are a market trader, a market woman buying yam or buying plantain or buying tomatoes and onions, again, because Ghana doesn't grow these things, we import a lot of these things. So, again, if you are even, you know someone that buys tomatoes, right, let's say, for example, from even you know, burkina Faso or one of those French-speaking African countries, again, same as the dollar, the Ghana city has depreciating value against the African franc, the CFA. Yeah, the African franc that is used by those French-speaking African countries, against the African franc, the CFA yeah, the African franc that is used by these French-speaking African countries, that's even been devalued. They have lost a lot of you know value against the African CFA. So, again, you traders are suffering as well. Again, if you have a child in Ghana and you have to pay school fees and dollars, again you are suffering as well.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Yeah, so everyone, no one is immune from this depreciation of the Ghana city and, in fact, you know, ghanians today, today, ghanians today are worse off than what they were when this government took it to power on January 7, 2017. Guineas are way off, way worse off. Even forget 2017. Like I said, 2020. Right, or let's say, january 21. January 21.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Right, when this government came, it had a re-election and was won for a second time January 21. It was 5.8. Right, gathering the cities to a dollar 5.8. Now it's 14. So that tells you, even the last four years, last four years, let alone last eight years, you even the last four years, last four years, let alone last eight, but the last four years alone, right, the quality of life of Rwanda, ghanians are worse off now than what they were even four years ago, january 2021.

Speaker 1: 39:18

So it shows you that this government has mismanaged the economy, has mismanaged it to an extent that our you know currency is that. Is that basically that free falls of mercy? Yeah, and even and we I heard um a book from bloomberg saying that the ghanai city will end 2024 at 16 galaxies to a dollar. Right now is 14.3. Bloomberg estimating that it could be 16 cities to a dollar by the end of the year. Some some puns say is even more than that. Pondysate is even more than that. And now the pound. The pound is now at 18 on the street to a pound. Again, you know sources on the ground saying that it could be over 20 cities to a pound by the end of the year. That's showing you the dire nature of the situation that Guineans are finding themselves in and that has culmin nature of the situation that Guineans are finding themselves in and that has culminated in the fact that Guineans are worse off today, may 2024, than they were in January 2021. So in three and a half, not in three and a half years, in three years, three months, Guineans have seen, you know, their quarter of life slashed and they are living on the worst conditions now than they have been at any time in the last 20 years in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 40:56

And so I hope you've enjoyed this version of Ghana in Focus, looking at the city, the depreciation, the causes and solutions. If you like the show, appreciate your friends and family. Social media networks subscribe to Ghana African Focus on YouTube hit the notification bell, meaning that you'll be notified every time I upload a new podcast. Also subscribe to Ghana Africa in Focus on Spotify hit the follow button, meaning that you've been notified every time we upload a new podcast on Spotify. Alright, so, from myself, kwame, and from all the crew here on Ghana in Focus, thank you very much for listening to this special edition and we'll see you for some more Ghana in Focus. Thank you very much for listening to this special edition and we'll see you for some more Ghana in Focus.