Analyst Urges Spending Now and Settling Debts Promptly
Nelson Cudjoe Kuagbedzi, Head of Finance at Merban Capital, is calling on the Ghanaian government to begin settling its debts, stressing that the current economic environment offers a crucial window of opportunity to act decisively.
His remarks follow a recent projection by President John Dramani Mahama, who predicted that the Cedi would stabilise within the GH¢10 to GH¢12 range to the US dollar — a level he described as fair and sustainable for both exporters and importers.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, June 5, 2025, Kuagbedzi said: “I think that this is the time for the government to start paying its debt. This is because we may not know what happens tomorrow.”
He highlighted 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.
