NDC demands cost of re-denomination exercise

The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament has reiterated its call on government and the Bank of Ghana to make a full disclosure of the cost of the redenomination exercise to enable Ghanaians determine whether or not the decision is the wisest considering the country's limited resources.

Addressing the press in Parliament on Friday, the MP for Lawra-Nandom and Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Dr Benjamin Kumbuor said even though the new Ghana cedi will be introduced next Tuesday, it wants to put on record its displeasure at government's failure to tell Ghanaians how much of their money is being used for the exercise.

Later in an interview with Joy News' Araba Koomson, he said they would support the policy on condition that there are deeper aspects of economic benefits to be accrued by the country beyond administrative inconveniences.

“As Parliamentarians we are accountable to the people of this country and it is normally not a fair situation to wait till something happens before you begin to talk about it…even if it was an hour to the exercise taking effect we still want to register our concerns to the people of this country.”

Dr Kumbuor said the NDC has strong feeling that the exercise is being financed from the Consolidated Fund.

He said: “I am not sure any individual is going to fund this. Even if the Bank of Ghana is going to fund this, the Bank of Ghana is a public institution…that is regulated by law. These expenditures are certainly of public interest even if it is not coming from the Consolidated Fund.”