Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has suggested religious leaders must offer practical advice to the government to stabilize the cedi and not prayers.

Mr. Alistair Tairo Nelson, a member of the National Youth Committee (NYC) of the Party said prayer was necessary in every human endeavour, but that alone could not be enough to attain economic stability.

He said the government must, therefore, be able to implement pragmatic economic policies to put the economy on a sound footing.

Mr Nelson, spokesperson for Youth Wing on a nationwide “Tweaa” tour, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani on Wednesday.

The Brong-Ahafo region is the second region after Ashanti region for the team to interact with the Party’s tertiary student members.

He said, “practical solution is needed to strengthen the current weakened value of the cedi not spirituality”.

Mr Nelson attributed the depreciation of the cedi to the change in taste to foreign products instead of local goods which only inured to the benefit of foreign economies.

Mr Nelson expressed regret at the situation in the country where certain business transactions were even carried out in dollar currency.

“Paying of fees in some schools, rents, bills, buying of some goods and services are all being done with the dollar. Even if you want to be respected in the church today, you have to give offertory in the dollar,” he said.

Mr Nelson said the national currency must by law be used in all transactions in the country and therefore urged patronage of locally-produced goods to sustain the local industries.

He said to address the depreciation of the cedi, all state institutions should be made to use locally produced products instead of imported goods that had flooded the markets.

Mr Nelson said for effective economic management and to minimize corruption that had bedeviled the country, there was the need to embrace a third party in government instead of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He said a third party with an all inclusive government agenda was what the country needed and not the winner-takes-all syndrome being practiced by the NDC and the NPP.

He noted the NDC and NPP had left the nation a legacy of corruption and failure, and called on the youth and the electorate in general to support the PPP and Papa Kwesi Nduom for a better Ghana.

Mr. Divine Nkrumah, National Youth Organizer/ Co-ordinator said the tour was to educate, inform and encourage the youth of the country to realize the need to take bold decisions for their socio-economic well-being.

He said both past and present leaders had failed the country, especially the youth with their empty and unfulfilled promises.