Founder and Leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), Dr Hassan Ayariga, has asked the government to halt the fast-depreciating Ghana cedi to avert economic hardships facing the citizenry.

According to him the depreciation of the cedi had led to increased costs of imported goods and services, contributing to inflation and economic instability.

Dr Ayariga said this at a press conference in Accra on the depreciation of the cedi against major currencies.

He said the depreciation of the cedi had become a major source of worry, economic hardship, and pain, especially for Ghanaian business owners, pensioners, traders, and businesses that depended on the dollar or foreign inflows.

He noted that the pressure on the cedi remained high, with its year-to-date depreciation against the US dollar standing at 5.5 per cent as of the end of April, higher than the 4.2 per cent recorded over the same period last year, adding that, that weakness was unusual in an election year.     

Dr Ayariga asked the government to restore the strength of the vedi by implementing policies that promoted economic stability, "reducing corruption and mismanagement of resources, and investing in key sectors such as production, manufacturing and industrialisation".

He also called on the government to ban forex trading, shut down businesses that charged in dollars, stop the quotation and awards of contracts in dollars, ban the opening of foreign currency accounts and close foreign currency accounts.

Additionally, the government must stop all hotels, businesses, airlines, landlords, schools, automobile companies and shipping lines from quoting and charging in foreign currencies, Dr Ayariga added.