Some manufacturing companies responsible for exchange rate volatilities – Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has expressed worry about the conduct of some local manufacturing companies.

He accused them of engaging in activities leading to the dollarization of the economy.

According to him, the development is not helping the exchange rate regime causing the instability of the cedi.

Speaking at an engagement with the Association of Ghana Industries, he advised manufacturing companies to desist from such acts.

Dr. Amin Adam cautioned that the ministry may be forced to go after the manufacturing companies to ensure a stable local currency.

“Just as we have good corporate citizens, we also have bad corporate citizens. For example, there are companies that sell and collect cash. When they are done they take the cedi and convert it to dollars and keep it in the banks and that contribute to the forex problem we have been talking about. We need to check that because the day we start going after them, the AGI will say we are harassing their members”, he said.

Citing some example, he disclosed that some companies deliberately keep large amount of dollars in anticipation of speculation.

“One company went and placed $US50 million dollars in the bank and didn’t have anything in cedi and that alone took the depreciation of the cedi by 2 cedis point. When it was 13 cedi the money went up to about 15 cedi to the dollar because of US$50 million dollars placed in one bank. So these are all contributing to the cedi which is bad”, he stressed.

Reacting to this, Chief Executive Officer for the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Seth Twum Akwaboah said the association will not protect any member found culpable o the act.

He indicated that the association will investigate some of these issues.

He further cautioned AGI members to embark on best practices.

“As an association we are very responsible, we work with high ethical standards and indeed if you are found to be in any kind of these situations, we will expose you and deal with you drastically. In fact we are not aware of this but I don’t doubt the minister for what he has said”

“We all know in every society, there are the good ones and the bad ones. So for me what I will say is our member companies involved in this should put a stop to this. If you are caught AGI will not be there to speak for you and that we can assure you. Sometimes we have to look at the circumstances that led to that”, he stated

The AGI also highlighted some key challenges that needs to be addressed to support industries across the country.