Economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana, Godfred A. Bokpin, says various governments since Ghana’s independence have not been consistent with putting up a proper structure for the economy.

This he says is a contributor to the abysmal performance of the cedi on the international market.

According to him, the current administration’s failures in relation to the cedi’s freefall against the dollar may be due to structural deficiencies in the country’s economy thus thwarting the efforts and strategies proposed by Vice President Bawumia while in opposition.

“So that [Dr Bawumia’s strategy] gave a certain kind of confidence that with a change in government, things were going to change necessarily but that is proving otherwise. Again perhaps they are doing their best but that is not enough. There are structural issues that perhaps may take more than two years, three years to change which constantly leads to the depreciation of the cedi,” he said.

Speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile Saturday, Professor Bokpin cited Ghana’s long relationship with the International Monetary Fund, IMF to prove his point that despite several interventions being made to stabilise the cedi, they have all failed.

“We have spent more time under the hands of the IMF since independence than we have actually spent on our own, and yet the structure of the economy we inherited from 1957 hasn’t changed. Since independence, we have gone to the IMF 16 times.

“So there are structural issues that I believe will take longer, and I believe that every government that we have seen perhaps has tried to do something about it, but we haven’t seen that consistency,” he stated.

Speaking concerning the creation of the FX Development committee and its task to find ways to improve the management, transparency and long term structure of Ghana’s foreign exchange flow, Professor Bopkin said, he does not believe the solution to the cedi’s free fall will come from the committee.

According to him, “it doesn’t depend on that committee alone to cause structural changes to the economy.”

“It cannot be their job. And even if we decide to make it their job, they would fail for which reason it ought to be dissolved because if you look at why the cedi depreciates, the structural issues, the policy issues, the management issues, and the transparency issues this is just to address a small aspect of that and for that reason, we cannot assign the stability of the cedi to this committee. It will be as terrible as asking a fish to climb a tree.”