Bawumia’s ‘Dollar arrested and key given to IGP’ comment was on a lighter note – George Ayisi

Director of Communications at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), George Ayisi, has asserted that Vice President Dr. Bawumia’s famous statement on curtailing the consistent depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi by arresting the dollar and handing the key to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) was “on a lighter note.”

He said the Vice President’s comments were premised on the significant improvement in the Cedi against major trading currencies like the US dollar.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, addressing a gathering in February 2022, emphatically stated that the Akufo-Addo government has arrested the dollar, which was on the run prior to the NPP assuming office.

“The Cedi has appreciated in value when we came in, it was running essentially, we have arrested it and the IGP has the key and locked it up; we have arrested it,” said Dr. Bawumia.

However, Mr. Ayisi contributing to the discussion on the Cedi depreciation on TV3 New Day on Monday, April 8, noted, amongst other things, that the Forex exchange rate was 4.20 to the US dollar when the NPP assumed office.

“Thereafter, for almost three years, it’s been hovering between 4.20 up to 6.80 thereabout. Around those times that was when the vice president did say that the Cedi has been arrested, the rate of depreciation has stabilised, and so once he’s arrested, the key has been given to the Inspector General of Police; that was on a lighter note,” he stated.

Mr Ayisi continued by stating that the forex market became volatile, pushing the exchange rate to 15 Cedis against the dollar in 2022.

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He said the vice president, as chairman of the Economic Management Team (EMT), proposed the policy of Gold for Oil to “stem the tides” of the Cedi depreciation.

“Especially in 2022 where it got to as high as about 15 Cedis, 17 Cedis in some cases to the dollar. It wasn’t very palatable so it was around that time that the concept of the gold for oil was mooted by the vice president and his team and which was implemented.

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“Fortunately, it helped stem the tide and brought back the volatile rate of depreciation, which was skyrocketing down to about 10.70 [to the dollar],” said Mr. Ayisi.

He also noted that the current government has to expand its expenditure basket to include items that hitherto were not on the government expenditure list. This, he said, has added to the pressure on the cedi.

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