Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr. Stephen Amoah, has urged Ghanaians to patronize local businesses and tourist sites.
He said if the business owners and tourism sites expand their operations to make it more attractive to the locals the foreigners will come to Ghana and eventually reduce the pressure on the local currency (Cedis).
According to him, excessive travelling is a major factor that causes cedis depreciation against the US dollar.
Speaking at the second CEO’s Breakfast Meeting held in Accra on Thursday, May 16, 2024, Dr. Amoah indicated that there are a lot of things in Ghana’s tourist sites which the citizens can enjoy themselves with and other businesses that are lucrative if Ghanaians are willing to stay.
“We always talk about cedis, cedis, if you change to dollars and go there why won’t the cedis suffer? But if we stay here the dollar people will come here they will demand for our currency. I think as a country we have everything at our disposal to develop tourism because God has given us.” He said.
“I suggest that they should start planning towards state workers, they can make it. For example, this year we are planning for the Finance Ministry and all its agencies. We need to visit all the tourist sites and spend some money for the actors in these areas and persuade them that they also make money. I think we need to begin with this.” Stephen Amoah added.
He stressed that God had blessed Ghana and Africa as a whole that the citizens can utilize it to create a better future for themselves but global modules are controlling Africans to forget what they have.
“One thing I have seen in Africa is that we have a lot of ideas but sometimes the global modules control us too much. We need to build home grown policy tools that specifically address our needs, so we need to do all these things and make sure that we all repent. A lot of you travel all the time, let’s come home, you see the monkeys are there, you see them, so let’s begin to show that high level of patronage and keep the money here.” He lamented.
