Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Nashiru Issahaku has admitted that the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserve is overstretched.
He regretted that the nation’s imports supersedes its export potential, hence the pressure on the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves.
According to him, the Central Bank’s major challenge is to arrest inflation to restore the nation’s macroeconomic stability.
Dr. Nashiru was speaking at an awards and dinner night in Tamale to climax the third edition of the Northern Ghana Business and Investment Conference.
He cited the prolonged energy crisis, implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure and low internal revenue mobilization as the major causes of the nation’s economic meltdown.
He however, allayed fears that the nation’s economy was in an irreparable state.
Dr. Nashiru Issahaku said prospects for stabilizing the local currency were very good.
Executive Chairman of Ghana’s leading fertilizer distributors, Wienco Ghana Limited, Mr. Henri Wientjes said the cedi depreciation was good for local export.
He explained that the high rise of the major foreign currency, Dollar will discipline Ghanaian importers to stop trading in China and invest in the local economy.
Mr. Wientjes reiterated the need for patronizing locally manufactured goods to boost the nation’s ailing economy.
Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini ascribed the nation’s economic downtrodden to inefficiency on the part of some public servants.
The Sagnarigu Legislator stated, “If the economy is worse and you inherit it may even grow worse in your hand so is a bounding duty on all of us as Ghanaians to collectively put our shoulders together and work to salvage our economy.”
He thus challenged workers on government’s payroll to change their attitude towards nation building.
Alhaji Fuseini said government was determined to cultivate sugar cane in commercial quantities in the Northern Region for both local consumption and export.
Some deserving individuals and organizations including the Orphans and Windows Movement of the Upper East Region, New Energy, Bonzali Rural Bank, Ghana Shippers Authority and Mrs. Lydia Lariba Bawa received awards for their meritorious contribution to northern investment.
The fourth edition of the annual Northern Ghana Business and Investment Conference is slated for Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital in 2015.
By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
