It’s not NDC or NPP magic, it’s Trump’s policies driving the dollar down – Kennedy Agyapong
Businessman and politician Kennedy Agyapong has pushed back against claims that recent gains by the Ghanaian cedi are the result of local government policy, insisting instead that external global factors — particularly U.S. politics — are driving the development.
Speaking at a recent public event, Agyapong dismissed local economic credit-taking, asserting that the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and the cedi’s relative appreciation stem from broader shifts in global demand, especially due to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign economic strategies.
“Today we are talking about dollar. I hear in the news all over,” he said. “The economists will tell you if they are fair and they are not playing politics with it. It is not a magic from NDC government, it’s not a magic from NPP government that is bringing the dollar down.”
According to Agyapong, Trump’s policies have impacted how the dollar is demanded globally, with reduced appetite for the currency contributing to its current state. “It is Trump and his policies towards the rest of the world’s economy. That people are not demanding dollars as expected. So the dollars are sitting there,” he explained.
He further noted that with the U.S. now in intense economic competition with China, global markets are shifting focus, leading to reduced demand for the dollar. In his view, this is what is affecting Ghana’s exchange rate — not domestic policy interventions.
“So whatever they are saying, if Trump and the world come together again, you see that our country did not put or implement any policies that will bring the dollar down. So whatever you are seeing here is temporal,” he warned.
Describing the current exchange rate gains as unsustainable, Agyapong called for realism in public discourse around the economy. “It is not any economic gurus in this country that is causing the cedi to appreciate and the dollar to depreciate. It is the wealth market — that they are not demanding the dollars as much as they used to. That is why there’s no competition and supply of dollar is exceeding the demand. As simple as that.”
Urging Ghanaians to resist political spin on the issue, he added, “These are basic economics principles. So we have to be careful with what they are saying about interest rates and all those things. It’s not magic. It is the world economy that is falling apart and the demand for the dollar has gone down.”
