Mr Benjamin Kpodo, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho Central in the Volta Region has declined invitation to serve on the 40-member Committee set up by Government to “bring the cedi back on track.”
He said though “it is good government acknowledged that the cedi is no longer under control and the need to find means to arrest it”, forming a Committee to arrest its free fall was ridiculous and not the way to go.
Mr Koodo who said this at a News conference organised by National Democratic Congress in the Volta Region at the Volta Press Centre in Ho, said “it is not my responsibility in this government to go on a cedi-rescuing mission, but my responsibility to rescue the entire country from the misrule.”
The MP, who is a member of the Finance Committee in Parliament and the only National Democratic Congress (NDC) “personality” nominated to serve on the committee said he had good reasons not to serve on the Committee.
The MP said aside the fact that “I was not consulted, not even the courtesy of a phone call asking me if I would like to serve on that Committee was made and we (NDC), invited them to Akosombo for us to get together to see how we could move the economy of Ghana forward, but they refused and told us that they have the men, they have the women and whatever to manage the economy well.”
The government through the Ministry of Finance, on Friday, January 17, formed a Committee made up of eminent individuals with knowledge in economics, finance, imports and exports, trade and investment to investigate the cause of the free fall of the cedi against major trading currencies especially the US dollar.
The Committee known as the “FX Development Committee” with Mr Ken Ofori Atta, Minister of Finance as its Chairman has a task of investigating the structural causes for the depreciation of the cedi and proposing measures to stabilise the currency of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer, which now trades at GH¢5.64 to $1 from about GH¢4.27 to $1 by the end of 2016.
The News conference was to assess the three years of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the state of the Volta Region.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu who addressed the media spoke about abandoned projects in the Volta region and other parts of the country and stated the readiness of the NDC to complete all projects and “rescue the country from the hardships.”
GNA
