Vice President of the Ghana Association of Forex Bureaus, Dr. Alex Akpabli, has urged government to come clean on its policy intent for the Ghana cedi and the economy in general.

According to him, although it is not clear whether the recent rapid appreciation of the cedi is as a result of market forces or a policy intervention, the government making known its intention will be easier for the financial sector to join in achieving it.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, he said a purpose driven depreciation of the cedi would probably be as a result of the government wanting to boost the country’s exports and product competitiveness on the international market.

“So like I keep saying, we are managing an economy, we must have a purpose to drive what we want to achieve. So for instance it is not bad when your currency or your cedi is depreciating. You see, sometimes if you want to focus on export and you want to be competitive, you don’t want to have a strong currency.

“If your intent or your intentions are to promote export, then you don’t have to have a strong cedi that your produce cannot be competitive in the global market. So all this must be purpose or policy driven,” he said.

Dr. Akpabli also added that if the recent depreciation and appreciation of the cedi were solely market driven, Ghanaians should expect the cedi to depreciate once again in January when demand for the dollar peaks.

“If it is not purposely driven or policy driven, and it’s just the market forces, then I can assure you that by January – because as we speak now, people are not importing, Christmas festivity is coming, people don’t need dollar to travel, this is not a school period that people will be paying fees so when it comes to January going, if it is just the market forces and it’s not policy driven the cedi will depreciate again against the foreign currency,” he said.

He further cautioned Ghanaians on their profit-driven attitude.

According to him, the profiteering of some Ghanaians are also factors that affect the fluctuation of the cedi.

“I want to caution. Some of these things are also attitudes. Ghanaians have certain attitudes that we need and pray that we change. We are too much profit oriented. So let government open that this is the way we want to go and let’s all join hands and help them to achieve it,” he said.