He was brandished, the worse Finance Minister, even though that award should have gone to his predecessor.
Ken Ofori-Atta inherited a broken economy and was steadily raising it up to a vibrant and prosperous one, recording single digit annual inflations from 2018 to 2021and during the turbulence of the new global pandemic, Covid-19.
Ken Ofori-Atta’s predecessor, Seth Terpker, came in a period where there was no global pandemic or economic crunch, but could not even manage an outbreak of common cholera. Seth Terkper messed up big time, when in 2014, Ghana experienced its worst ever cholera outbreak, with 28,922 cases and 243 deaths.
As Ken was making efforts to set the economy back on the path of recovery and advancement after the havoc of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war set in.
This devasted the whole world with the dollar appreciating against world currencies. Even the euro, fell against the dollar at one point and almighty pound sterling almost exchanged at one-to-one with the USD.
With such top and powerful currencies seriously bruised by the dollar, our Ghana cedi could not stand to it. Suddenly it started depreciating at such an alarming speed only second to the PNDC/NDC era, when within a period of nineteen years, the cedi depreciated by over 288,000% from ¢2.75 to ¢6,750.00 to $1.00.
From about GH¢7.00 to $1.00 the dollar started rising and when it broke into GH¢8.00, people started mocking Ken, saying the dollar and broken the eight.
Suddenly, self-acclaimed economists who possibly never could tell the difference between 2 plus 2 and 8 minus 4, when they were in school became speculators and speculated that by the end of December 2022, the rate would be anything between GH¢20.00 and GH¢25.00 to $1.00.
People started calling for the head of Ken Ofori-Atta as the world all over, finance ministers and even some heads of state had to resign or were sacked from office because they could not provide any solution to the economic crisis.
In Ghana, even though Ken was over and above finance ministers of the likes like Peprah and Tekper, in his own party, he was not regarded among the best fit to become finance minister.
Some NPP MPs made a public statement that the president must sack Ken. This is unprecedented in a way. That is so, because while NDC MPs and ministers in 2014 wanted Seth Terkper to go, they made this appeal under cover of darkness. In the case of the NPP, the MPs came out, openly with an ultimatum which was underlined, “With Immediate Effect!”
The president had to negotiate with these NPP MPs and promised that Ken will go, most probably by the end of the year, after he had completed some important assignments, namely the 2023 Budget, IMF and the Appropriation Bill. This was accepted by the MPs.
Suddenly, these MPs who were crowned as heroes, were now called traitors and some swore that they accepted bribes to rescind on their demand. Meanwhile the dollar kept rising to new heights.
Then, a miracle unfolded. It started tumbling down from GH¢15.00 to $1.00down through to GH¢11.00 and stopped briefly then dove down again. And today the rate is breaking the eight at GH¢8.35 over the weekend of the third week of December 2022.
While some were celebrating and forecasting a rate at GH¢6.00 to $1.00 by the beginning of January 2023, some Ghanaians were unhappy at the developing situation. When the dollar was rising, they came out boldlyto blame Ken Ofori-Atta for the development. Today, none of them have come out to commend Ken for the rise of Ghana cedi.
One Prof. Godfred Bokpinonly succeeded in putting his name on the media landscape when, he warned that those celebrating the rise of the Ghana cedi must know that it is not backed by any robust economic indicator and they must therefore question its sustainability.
When it starts raining during the dry season, what does he expect farmers to do? Wait for the actual rainy season before planting?
As things stand now the dollar is about breaking the eight and this is good news, except for those who had stocked piled dollars, hoping it gets to GH¢20.00 to $1.00 then they can do good trading. Unfortunately, they hedged and lost out.Meanwhile it is alleged that some state institutions have pegged GH¢10.00 to $1.00 for transactions even though theBoG rate is way below that.
Those who are not in the celebrating mood include transport operators who were at first not ready to lower fares even though the price of ex-pump fuel was going down.
In all this, the question is, should Hon Ken Ofori-Atta exit his post as finance minister, after proving beyond measures that he is better than his predecessor and can indeed get Ghana out of any economic mess? Never in the history of this country has the dollar falling at this rate.
Ken, may exit while the applause is loudest, but that could become a problem for his successor. If the next finance minister does not to perform as Ken or even more than him, we may see Ken’s statue in a busy interchange with inscription, “The Finance Minister Who Proved Everyone Wrong And Brought The Economy To Life.”
Meanwhile, the dollar is breaking the eight, will NPP also break the eight?
Hon. Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
