Even the President offer gifts in dollars - Mubarak

Accra, July 18, GNA - Alhaji Munkata Mubarak, NDC-Asawase on Tuesday criticised a cash gift given in dollars instead of cedis by President John Agyekum Kufour to Ms. Peggy Donkor, winner of the 2005 Journalist of Year Award.

According to the Member, he expected the President to give such gifts in cedis, which was the only legal tender in Ghana. Alhaji Mubarak was contributing to a statement on excessive use of dollars in the Ghanaian economy made by Mr Eric Opoku, NDC-Asunafo South on the floor of Parliament.

Alhaji Mubarak said the cedi was a symbol of national pride and identity, which must be defended.

He stated, for instance that, the British and Nigerians in their home countries insist on local legal tenders for payments of transactions at places where prices had even been quoted in dollars. Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, former Minister of Education and Science and Member for Akim Oda, said the dollar and gold were used for building national reserves and that it had become an international practice to quote most payments in dollars.

He said the practice of quoting in dollars on the local market had been around since the 1970s.

He said this however, does not preclude that the dollar was used in everyday local business transaction, stressing the need for a discouragement of the practice.

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, NPP-Offinso North, said inflation had weighed heavily on the cedi contributing to the excessive use of dollars and also criticised public agencies for paying remunerations for consultancy works with dollars instead of the local cedi. The statement by the Asunafo South member pointed out that according to "Economic Intelligent Unit," there was too much use of dollars in the economy.

The practice called "dollarisation" had affected payments for rents in Accra and Kumasi, hotel charges, plane fares, sold plots and houses. "Mr. Speaker, some Ghanaian workers are paid salaries in dollars and even bottled water and vegetables are sold in dollars with consumers having the option to pay in dollars or the cedi equivalent. "... Even government officials make more of their quotation in dollars indicating that the confidence of Ghanaians in our own currency is eroding at an alarming rate."

Mr Opoku said dollarisation would be tantamount to giving up Ghana for colonisation and constituted an infringement on the country's sovereignty and limit its ability to deal with domestic macro economic issues.

"I am therefore, calling on the Bank of Ghana to invoke their regulation against this practice to save our mother Ghana from perpetual balance of payment problems. I am also urging the government of Ghana to wage a hectic crusade against the use of foreign currencies in this country to restore credibility to the cedi," Mr Opoku said. In another statement, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, NPP-Bosomtwe called for the development of roads, guesthouses and other forms of infrastructure to facilitate tourism in the Lake Bosomtwe area in the Ashanti Region.

"There is a queue of potential investors who are knocking out at the same time wondering when the Bosomtwe Basin will be provided with the relevant infrastructural facilities to enable them to provide further investment, which will without doubt contribute towards the development of the area," Mr Osei-Mensah said.