The Deputy Finance Minister Charles Adu Boahen has stated that the FX Development Committee, established by the Finance Ministry to look into policy measures and solutions to prevent the recurring depreciation of the cedi, is not usurping the powers of the central bank.
The establishment of the committee follows a promise made by the Finance Minister last year that the government would establish a bi-partisan committee to investigate the structural causes of the cedi depreciation and propose measures accordingly.
But addressing the press at the inauguration of the committee, the Deputy Finance Minister stressed that: “the formation of this committee is not to infringe on the independence of the central bank in its foreign exchange operations.”
He stated that, if anything at all, the work of the committee is to complement the efforts of the central bank in curtailing the usual poor performance of the cedi against its foreign counterparts.
The cedi last year depreciated by more than 12.7 percent, the worst performance since 2015 when the cedi depreciated by more than 14.6 percent.
The work of the committee, the Deputy Minister explained is to review the current FX regime, identify the inherent constraints in the system and offer workable alternatives by way of policies and programmes which potentially would reduce FX risks in the economy.
“The committee is also to critically look at the role of automation and digitization as a critical enabler of FX reforms,” he stated.
The membership of the committee is drawn from the Office of the Vice President, Bank of Ghana, Agriculture Ministry, Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Association of Ghana Industries, some universal banks among other key stakeholders.
The committee is chaired by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.