{"id":326145,"date":"2017-06-07T16:01:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T16:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=326145"},"modified":"2017-06-07T16:01:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T16:01:14","slug":"devalued-currency-is-a-blessing-for-ghana-henri-wientjis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/06\/devalued-currency-is-a-blessing-for-ghana-henri-wientjis\/","title":{"rendered":"Devalued currency is a blessing for Ghana \u2013 Henri Wientjis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Businessman and CEO of the African Tiger Holdings Limited, Henri Wientjis has suggested that Ghana\u2019s devalued currency is a blessing for the country.<\/p>\n<p>He argues that the depreciation of the cedi should serve as an opportunity to develop the country\u2019s agric sector and increase exports to the advantage of exporters.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Investment Opportunities Forum as part of this year\u2019s Citi Business Festival, Mr. Wientjis bemoaned the apparent lack of utilization of such abundant opportunities and charged the state and its people to work to reverse the trend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the majority of the farming communities here as well as the hospitality industry, a devalued cedi is a blessing for Ghana\u2026.Imagine that the rate of exchange is 10 percent, all these traders from Ashanti, North, Fante who go as illiterates all over the world to buy tooth picks, plastic shoes, if those people know that the rate of exchange is 10, then I can tell you that Ghana will be exporting food in the next two years,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cedi depreciates by 9.7% in 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Latest figures by the Bank of Ghana have revealed that the cedi depreciated by 9.7% as at the end of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The Bank of Ghana\u2019s Summary of Economic and Financial Data also revealed that the cedi depreciated by 1% to the dollar as at May 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The local currency also depreciated by 6% and 5.8% to the Euro and British Pound respectively for the same period.<\/p>\n<p>The value of the Ghana cedi has been falling in relation to major international currencies for some years now.<\/p>\n<p>The development in the years past, has prompted the introduction of monetary mechanisms by the central bank to stem the free fall.1<\/p>\n<p>Some importers have been<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citibusinessnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/27\/cedis-troubles-deepen-expected-to-continue-into-march\/\" target=\"_blank\">lamenting the impact of the cedi depreciation<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on their operations.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, traders at Abossey Okai early this year threaten of increased prices if the cedi failed its\u00a0losing streak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Allow cedi to devalue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Economist and CEO of Dalex Finance, Ken Thompson has however made a strong case for the cedi to be <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/01\/20\/mixed-reaction-over-calls-for-devaluation-of-cedi\/\" target=\"_blank\">allowed to devalue to its natural state<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In his view, though the importers suffer within the short term, the long term benefits for the economy would be more beneficial than the short term interventions to stem the cedi\u2019s free fall.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Mr. Wientjis admits that the move to shift attention to agriculture may affect other sectors, he believes the benefits accruing should be of primary concern to grow the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course there is a very negative side of that as certain portions of societies suffer. But if we are serious and for the past forty-four years that agriculture is important, we should understand why the US is criticizing China and Germany for different reasons but for manipulating their currency,\u201d he queried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe two major labour intensive areas in terms of our economy is not gold nor oil gas but hospitality potential and agriculture. Let\u2019s make it a little bit more attractive for them,\u201d Henri Wietjis also asserted.<\/p>\n<p>The Investment Opportunities Forum brought together key stakeholders in the private and public sectors to discuss challenges confronting Ghana\u2019s investment regime and proffer solutions to address them to make the country an attractive investment destination.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Pius Amihere Eduku\/citibusinessnews.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Businessman and CEO of the African Tiger Holdings Limited, Henri Wientjis has suggested that Ghana\u2019s devalued currency is a blessing for the country. He argues that the depreciation of the cedi should serve as an opportunity to develop the country\u2019s agric sector and increase exports to the advantage of exporters. Speaking at the Investment Opportunities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,171,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Devalued currency is a blessing for Ghana \u2013 Henri Wientjis - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/06\/devalued-currency-is-a-blessing-for-ghana-henri-wientjis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Devalued currency is a blessing for Ghana \u2013 Henri Wientjis - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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