Report By: Business Desk
A member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Yaw Boamah-Nyarko, has called on government to urgently focus on building strong foreign reserves to consolidate the recent stability of the cedi.
Speaking on PM Express on JoyNews on Monday, May 26, he said the country must not bask in temporary currency gains but rather plan for long-term resilience.
“We are quick to take praise when these things are happening, but we are unable to plan well and unable to put in the necessary mechanisms which is more sustainable,” the Effia MP said.
He revealed that Parliament is scheduled to summon the Finance Minister to explain the government’s clear strategy for consolidating the currency’s performance.
“We’re going back to Parliament tomorrow to ask the Minister of Finance to give us information as to government strategy and plan to consolidate this gain and also ensure that we build the buffers that will be able to stand the days of adversity,” he noted.
Mr. Boamah-Nyarko questioned the country’s gold reserve management and expressed worry over the pace at which reserves are being depleted without significant replacement.
“As at the end of December, our gold reserve stood at 30 tons. And then we come five months down the line, we’re selling almost 20 tons of gold, and yet our add-on to our gold reserve is just less than 1 ton,” he lamented.
He said Ghana’s economic vulnerabilities were exposed during the COVID-19 crisis, and warned that the current global commodity boom won’t last forever.
“We are not going to get this gold price going on like this forever. We are not going to get a cocoa price rise like this forever,” he cautioned.
The MP called on the Vice President, who heads the Economic Management Team, to provide firm assurance to Ghanaians on how government intends to sustain the cedi’s current strength and ensure prudent reserve accumulation.
“We would want the Vice President… to assure us as a country, the kind of arrangement they are putting in place to make sure that all of these things are not just a nine-day wonder,” he stressed.
Mr. Boamah-Nyarko also pointed to stronger reserve examples elsewhere.
“The US is having over 8000 tonnes and the UK has over 2000 tonnes,” he said, highlighting the scale of Ghana’s shortfall.
He warned that failure to act now could leave the country exposed once global prices begin to fall.
“If you go by this trajectory by the end of the year, how much reserve would you have built into your system?” he asked.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com
