The free falling cedi value against the convertible currencies is prompting worrying yet justifiable disquiet. Experts in fiscal matters and ordinary Ghanaians managing simple businesses by the street and in metal containers in the alleys of Accra are talking about the trend. They are fretting over what the eventual outcome will be.

It is not usual for ordinary hawkers and container-based traders to lament over such complex matters as inflation and the falling value of the national currency. These are normally confined to the sophisticated realm of macro-economics: today it is a different ballgame. The effects of the situation are far-reaching, triggering nagging and invasive questions, answers to which are being readily provided by members of the opposition to the detriment of the government propaganda machinery.

The propaganda machinery continues to churn out mendacious stories intended to make the political establishment look good, even as the quantity of gari a given amount of money can buy continues to dwindle by the day in the face of constant salaries.

Just how much the insulting NDC propaganda can achieve at this time of massive depreciation of the cedi value and economic anguish is not too difficult to determine. It would not be long before those behind such nonsense are booed by hungry Ghanaians who have already been tagged garrulous by the President.

The current trend presents a test of wits for those managing the country’s economy: their mastery of trouble shooting in this field would mark them for commendation or condemnation. Their performance and helplessness have already cited them for condemnation in the arena of public opinion.

Failure to arrest the situation would provide a ready impetus for the country’s unintended movement towards an economic black hole, escaping which could prove tasking if not impossible, given the dearth of options at the hands of the managers of the economy.

President Mahama might consider eventually succumbing to the pressure being brought to bear upon him to sack his Finance Minister. But would that arrest the free fall of the cedi?

It is paradoxical that the real picture as being played out is a sharp contrast from what the President painted just before the year commenced. He painted a bright 2014, a year in which according to him, Ghanaians would smile; we disagreed with his prognosis given the visible facts on the ground. We were not wrong as being evidenced by the near nothingness the cedi is being rendered by the all-powerful dollar and others.

We are all paying the price of the reckless dissipation of state resources just so the electoral machinery could be skewed during the last elections in favour of the highest bidder. It is rueful that we must suffer such painful tribulations because a group of Ghanaians took us to that path.

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana