Dr Stephen Amoah clarifies remarks on cedi depreciation, claims misquotation
Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr. Stephen Amoah, has clarified his recent comments on the depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi, asserting that his remarks were taken out of context.
Dr. Amoah expressed his frustration over what he described as a deliberate misrepresentation by some media personnel known for quoting interviewees out of context.
During an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Accra-based Citi FM, Dr. Amoah, who is also the MP for Nhyiaeso, addressed the issue, stating, “we have a country where anybody says anything and they [some media persons] take a part and do stories and create a whole thing out of it and a time will come when it will be difficult to freely grant interviews.”
In response to a reporter’s question on May 29 about tackling the cedi’s depreciation, Dr. Amoah remarked, “cedi depreciation is a ritual problem, I agree with you. It is not because of one particular government. It is an issue that is nationalistic or that needs nationalistic attention.”
He further elaborated, “So far as we keep on being an importer-driven economy, we will be having problems with the cedi because we import almost everything. But Inshallah, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, next year, if he comes, we are going to design a long-term framework to deal with the cedi [depreciation].”
Dr. Stephen Amoah later sought to clarify his comments, explaining that his intent was to outline a comprehensive strategy for addressing the cedi’s depreciation and not to attribute blame to any specific government.
“I went to monitor the voter registration exercise and they [media] asked me about the dollar and the cedi’s depreciation and all that I said was that from now till December, we are doing our best to stabilize the cedi, which I said is a short-term approach, but we need a long-term approach to resolve the issue through a framework, and then I proposed that to achieve that, we will design a long-term approach when Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is elected president.”
