The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) is raising concerns about the excessive reliance on monetary policy by the Bank of Ghana to control inflation and the cedi’s depreciation.
According to him, the monetary policy tool is not working but rather worsening the economic situation.
“There is the need to align the monetary and fiscal policies to address the situation by implementing unorthodox homegrown policies to tackle the ongoing economic crisis”, Clement Osei-Amoako, President of the Chamber disclosed at the 46th Annual General Meeting of the GNCCI in Accra.
He urged government to work with the multinational companies operating in the offshore Oil and Gas sectors to consider keeping a portion of their dollar revenues (20% – 30%) with local banks for Ghana cedis rather than depositing it in offshore accounts with international banks.
“The Chamber proposes to the Government of Ghana to work with the multinational companies operating in our offshore Oil & Gas sectors to consider settling a portion of their dollar revenues (20% – 30%) with local banks for Ghana Cedis rather than in their offshore accounts with international banks”.
“In addition, we expect the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to consider a domestic gold purchasing programme, where BoG works with gold mining companies, both local and foreign to purchase a certain percentage (20% – 30%) of the country’s extracted gold directly in Ghana cedis. This measure when properly implemented will shore-up the country’s foreign currency reserve and further strengthen the domestic currency”.
The 46th Annual General Meeting, was on the theme, “Ghana’s Cyclical Economic Crisis: Time for Bold Policies to Address the Economic Structure”.