Last updated on Thursday, 29th July, 2010, at 11:06am
Togbe Afede lauds reduction in interest rate
By Citifmonline.com | Mon 22nd February, 2010 13:45 GMT
Togbe Afede - Member of the BOG Board

A member of the newly constituted Board of the Bank of Ghana, Togbe Afede the XIV says the reduction in interest rates cannot be over-emphasized especially after Last Friday’s cut in the Prime-lending Rate by the Bank of Ghana. 

This followed his indication to Citi Business after the swearing in ceremony of the 10 member board by President Mills last week that their immediate priority was to work towards reducing interest rates. 
 
The Policy rate which determines the direction of interest rates charged on loans was last Friday reduced by 2 percentage points to 16 percent from the initial 18 percent. 
 
Togbe Afede intimated to Citi Business that considering such positive developments, banks now have no excuses but to also reduce interest rates.      
                                                                                     
According to him “Ghana is among the countries in Africa that have the highest interest rate, Nigeria which has been about at par with us for some time now currently have the interest rate about 6%. So it is difficult to expect in this environment that indoors and manufacturing would be competitive to launch Ghana unto the next phase of development”.
 
“I believe that it is quite obvious given what we’ve seen in the trends in inflation for interest to come down and I would be very shocked if interest rates are maintained where they are because I would want to see them come down very fast”, he noted.
 
The Ministry of Finance says the cut in the policy rate goes to reinforce government’s commitment to achieving maximum macro-economic stability.
 
The Deputy Minister of finance, Fiifi Kwettey speaking to Citi Business said “as in line with current happenings, our inflation has been consistently on the way down and the currency has been very stable”.  
 
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