FX Committee Must Be Dissolved – Kwame Pianim

Ghanaian economist and investment consultant, Kwame Pianim want the newly inaugurated FX Development Committee scrapped over what he says is its lack of focus.

He said the current nature and composition of the committee seemed to suggest it is only a “PR stunt.”

Speaking to Citi News’ Umaru Sanda Amadu on Monday, Mr. Pianim said most of the members of the committee are busy people with other equally critical duties even in government and must not be bothered with serving on the committee.

“The focus is wrong. The committee is made up of some very competent people but they are too busy. The Minister for Agriculture [Owusu Afriyie Akoto] should be busy transforming agriculture. The Minister for Trade [Alan Kyeremanteng] should be busy sitting down with industry to decide the trade protocols.”

“I cannot see them contributing to anything. Let’s dissolve it,” he said.

Kwame Pianim also said the timing of the inauguration of the committee was wrong as the government should at this time be more interested in taking action for development rather than coming up with new ideas.

“A forty-member committee, are we serious? In the fourth year of this administration? We don’t need ideas… we need action. If I see this committee, it seems like a public relations stunt. We are not interested in PR stunts,” he noted.

He further emphasized that any such committee, especially with regards to the economy, should be handled by technocrats and not people with political interests.

“The stability of the currency should be something that should be done by technocrats outside the political purview so that when something goes wrong, Ghanaian voters will not blame the government but the governor of the central bank,” he said.

FX Committee inaugurated

The Finance Ministry last Friday inaugurated a committee to look into the causes of the depreciation of the cedi and propose solutions to the problem.

The establishment of the committee, named the FX Developments Committee, is a fulfilment of a promise made by the Ministry last year to constitute a bi-partisan committee to look into the problem and help address it.

The Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu-Boahen who inaugurated the committee said it will work to complement the efforts of the Bank of Ghana in curtailing the usual poor performance of the cedi against other major foreign currencies.

“The formation of this committee is not to infringe on the independence of the central bank in its foreign exchange operations,” he said.

The formation of the committee has generated debate within the political circles as some have described it as unnecessary.

But the Ministry of Finance has justified its inauguration.

---citinewsroom