There have been many predictions around how the cedi will perform in 2016.
Majority of them show the cedi will not perform so well.
The cedi started 2016 at 3 cedis 80 pesewas on the interbank foreign exchange market and 3 cedis 83 pesewas at forex bureaus.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GlmtZoun1TO6TiFYqmuotVERcaNdhq2c”]It is currently trading at 3 cedis 84 on the interbank market and 4 cedis 26pesewas at forex bureaus.
So with the cedi’s expected massive knock against the dollar and other foreign currencies later this year Ghanaians will need to find innovative ways to plan for the year to absorb any shocks from the forex markets.
Citi Business News spoke to Economist Dr Ebo Turkson and CEO of Dalex Finance Ken Thompson each on three ways you can protect yourself from the cedi’s unstable ways.
According to Dr. Ebo Turkson you should
- While not quoting your pricing in dollars you can index your price to the dollars and that would come with what we call many cost. What it means is that very frequently you will have to change you price to reflect how much it will bring the same good or product to your shelve especially if you are an importer, otherwise it will erode all your profit. This is because if your prices are in cedis and the currency depreciates that will affect you as after you have sold your goods you are not going to get back the dollar equivalent of what you use to buy the goods back.
- As soon as you sell if you are an importer go and change whatever proceeds into dollars and keep it in your account so that if it’s get to the time to go for your supplies from outside you will not be found wanting because your capital is eroded due to the depreciation of the cedi, so as and when you sell you must change your sales into dollars.
- The third way, is to look for financial instruments that can normally save whatever you have and hedge rightly against the cedi and so for example if we are expecting the cedi to depreciate around 10% or 25% then you look for an instrument or fixed deposit which earn you an interest of about 25% which can cushion you against the depreciation of the cedi.
Meanwhile CEO of Dalex Finance Ken Thompson says
- First don’t take any dollar loans or reduce your exposure to the dollars because as the dollar falls the amount of the cedi you need for the repayment the loan becomes higher and higher. And listeners will remember what happened in Asia crises, one of the big problems was that the companies that had taken dollar loans, most of them collapsed.
- Another thing we should do is to also strive for operational efficiency; the days of drivers sitting under trees should be over as there is no point employing somebody who just drives. All of your staff should be able to multi task. At delax you should be able to multi task, if you’re not able to multi task then am sorry you have no business working in the company.
- Another thing is with entrepreneurs as I have always said is to engage in exporting which will earn you foreign exchange which is having local substitute. It important to not import the cedi will depreciate so exporting is important.
–
By: Citifmonline.com/Ghana
