Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has claimed that the depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar has exhibited improvement compared to its performance during the previous John Mahama administration.

He contended that under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's leadership over the past seven years, the value of the local currency has been relatively more stable than before.

During an interview with AfricaWatch, he asserted that despite the economic challenges faced by the country, the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar has been sustainable.

“Why not? We use averages to measure progress in statistics and economics all the time. It is a valid comparison of the management of the exchange rate under our government versus under the NDC government. The point is that notwithstanding the major global and domestic challenges we have been through, it is remarkable that whereas the exchange-rate depreciation between 2009-2016 averaged 13.9%, between 2017-2023 it averaged 13.1%. That is a fact,” Dr Bawumia stated.

He continued, “The data shows that from 2009-2016, the cedi depreciated cumulatively by 71.1%, and between 2017 and 2023, the cumulative depreciation was 64.6%. So, whether you look at the average or the cumulative, the depreciation of the cedi has been lower under our government, notwithstanding the severe global shocks we have endured. That is the basic truth.”

Dr. Bawumia, also the New Patriotic Party's flagbearer for the 2024 general elections, stood by his widely circulated statement from 2016, asserting that the NDC administration had weak fundamentals. Consequently, the cedi was in a dire state, exposing them [NDC].

“Absolutely! It is still true, and I will continue to stand by that statement. We saw that between 2017 and 2021 when the fundamentals in terms of the fiscal deficit, inflation, GDP growth, external balances, and international reserves were fairly strong, the exchange rate was relatively stable.

“But following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the banking-sector crisis, the excess-capacity energy payments, and the lack of access to international capital markets, the fundamentals of the economy were weakened, and the fiscal deficit and debt levels increased,” he explained.

In 2022, Ghana faced one of its severest economic downturns, marked by its failure to meet payments on a significant portion of its external debt totaling $30 billion.

As a result, the country was excluded from international capital markets and turned to domestic treasury bill markets for borrowing.

Under its 17th IMF bailout program, Ghana, on April 13, 2024, reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF Mission team for a second review, enabling the release of a third installment of bailout funds amounting to $360 million.

Ghana's Extended Credit Facility program with the IMF is set to span a three-year period.