The Minister for Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has criticised Bolgatanga Central Member of Parliament, Isaac Adongo for allegedly encouraging people to purchase dollars for their business operations.

Dr Amin Adam accused Mr Adongo of attempting to undermine the Ghanaian Cedi and cause further depreciation.

At a press conference on Monday, July 1, Dr Amin Adam, who also serves as the Karaga Member of Parliament, described his colleague and friend’s actions as inappropriate.

He claimed that Mr Adongo's comments were intentionally made to incite negative sentiments against the recent appreciation of the local currency.

Despite these remarks, Dr Amin Adam reassured the public and the business community that the Cedi has shown gradual improvement compared to the same period last year.

He emphasised that the Cedi is poised for significant growth with the forthcoming receipt of the fourth tranche of the IMF loan and the completion of the debt restructuring programme.

Dr Amin Adam attributed the positive performance of the Cedi to the exemplary leadership of President Akufo-Addo and the support of the Ghanaian people for government initiatives.

He urged citizens to remain confident in the measures being taken to stabilise and strengthen the national currency.

"We have said over and over that the problem with the Cedi can also be largely attributed to speculation, and therefore while we’ve been making efforts to influence market sentiments positively, we also know that some other people are inciting speculation. We have had intelligence that people have been deliberately inciting speculation but we never got it too real as we saw only two or three days ago."

"When my good friend and brother Isaac Adongo went out there urging people to buy dollars to do their business and this was after I indicated at a town hall meeting in the UK that with all the policies we are implementing and with the flows that we are expecting from external sources and with the completion of the debt restructuring with our bilateral official creditors and Eurobond holders, we saw the Cedi becoming stronger and stronger. My brother went out there to say people should ignore Amin Adam and go out there and buy dollars," he said.

The Finance Minister also stated that Ghana’s economy is showing strong signs of recovery.

He highlighted the positive economic indicators for the first quarter of 2024, suggesting a favourable outlook for the remainder of the year.

Dr Amin Adam emphasised that the overall macroeconomic environment remains stable as the government continues to implement the IMF-supported programme.

This announcement comes after the IMF Executive Board completed its second review of Ghana’s US$3 billion, 36-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement.

"Growth, as we've heard from the previous two distinguished speakers, is proving to be more resilient and robust than initially programmed, and the economy continues to show strong signs of recovery, particularly in the first quarter of 2024," stated Dr Adam.

"The results were remarkable. Overall, real GDP growth for quarter one of 2024 was 4.7%, the highest since quarter one of 2022. This growth performance is better than the 3.1% growth recorded in the same period in 2023," he added.