The Head of Finance at Merban Capital, Nelson Cudjoe Kuagbedzi, has described the government’s current efforts to stabilise the Ghana Cedi as a deliberate and strategic move to resume debt servicing under improved fiscal conditions.
Mr Kuagbedzi noted that the government appears to be working within a targeted exchange rate band it considers favourable for managing its cash flows and honouring debt obligations.
“This means that they have a target rate that they want to settle on, and they feel that within that target rate, they can comfortably proceed to start paying debt. So, I think it is a well-calculated strategy by the government,” he said.
According to him, this approach signals an intentional effort to create macroeconomic conditions that support predictable fiscal planning and external payments.
“They are clearly trying to intervene in one way or the other to settle the exchange rate within a band, which will be comfortable for the government based on their own cash flow projection, to start paying their debt,” Kuagbedzi added.
He urged the government to seize the current relative economic stability as an opportunity to begin honouring its financial commitments.
“This is the time for them to start paying the debt,” he stressed.
Mr Kuagbedzi’s comments come in the wake of President John Dramani Mahama’s recent engagement with the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters (FAGE), where he projected that the Ghana Cedi would stabilise within a GH¢10 to GH¢12 range to the US dollar. The President described this band as “a fair value” that balances the interests of both exporters and importers while safeguarding macroeconomic gains.
The Mahama administration is working on a broader economic recovery plan, which seeks to rebuild investor confidence, protect export competitiveness, and enhance fiscal discipline.
Kuagbedzi noted that the current exchange rate stability is now being driven more by domestic policy decisions than by global market dynamics.
“The argument has clearly shifted from external factors to the government’s own internal factors,” he noted.
Drawing on past narratives about the Cedi’s performance, Kuagbedzi added: “When the Cedi was appreciating, we all said it was a result of the Trump tariff war with China and other countries. But we know now that we are no longer talking about the tariff war we are talking about the government’s own initiative or policies to stabilise the Cedi within a certain band.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has dismissed claims that the recent strength of the Cedi is due to a lack of government spending.
Addressing Parliament on June 3, he defended the government’s fiscal discipline while assuring that spending remains ongoing but responsible.
“It is not true that the government is not spending. We have ended that era of reckless spending. We are spending prudently. The NDC will not spend recklessly. We will spend according to what we have,” Dr. Forson said.
