Policy Analyst and Researcher, Stephen Apolima, has urged the government and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to pursue long-term structural reforms instead of relying on short-term dollar injections to stabilise the cedi.
Speaking in an interview, Apolima said Ghana’s economy continues to suffer from deep-rooted fragility that cannot be cured by periodic interventions in the foreign exchange market.
“The Bank of Ghana, in its anxious bid to steady the cedi, often behaves like a physician who soothes a fever without curing the infection,” he said. “Each injection of foreign currency cools the patient-economy momentarily, yet the sickness remains untouched, pulsing quietly beneath the surface.”
He explained that Ghana’s economic structure remains vulnerable because it relies heavily on imports and external financing, with weak local production and minimal value addition to exports.
“Our economy inhales imports and exhales dependency,” he remarked. “The industrial base, weak and weary, can scarcely support the weight of our consumption. Our exports, modest and often raw, tell a story of a country that sells its inheritance for daily bread.”
According to him, the nation’s approach to stabilising the currency through foreign exchange injections is akin to “a desperate man clutching a cane that cannot bear his weight.”
“It steadies him, yes but only until the next stumble,” Mr. Apolima noted, warning that such measures only provide temporary relief without addressing the underlying weaknesses in production and trade.
He advised the central bank to “dream beyond the next balance sheet” and focus on strategies that strengthen productivity, local manufacturing, and sustainable resource management.
“The cedi will not find peace in the vaults of foreign banks but in the quiet hum of Ghanaian factories; in the cocoa that is processed here, not shipped raw; in the minerals refined, not smuggled; in the rivers restored, not ruined,” he said.
Mr. Apolima further urged policymakers to recognise that environmental stewardship is a crucial part of economic management.
“When the government learns that environmental protection is key economic policy, then perhaps the cedi will no longer need artificial resuscitation,” he said.
He added that Ghana must build resilience from within, investing in production, innovation, and value addition to end its cycle of dependency and vulnerability to external shocks.
