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"This Can't Happen In Nigeria Where Leaders Are Corrupt" — Reactions As Ghana's Cedi Is Rated Africa's Best Currency

SaharaReporters had earlier reported how the Cedi ended the first quarter of 2021 on a high note with a year-to-date appreciation of 0.6 per cent to the US dollar, outperforming some other prevalent 15 currencies in Africa.

Many Nigerians have reacted to a report that the Cedi, Ghana's local currency, was rated the best currency in Africa for the first quarter of 2021.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported how the Cedi ended the first quarter of 2021 on a high note with a year-to-date appreciation of 0.6 per cent to the US dollar, outperforming some other prevalent 15 currencies in Africa.

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Nigerians on social media have started reacting to this, blaming the fall of the country's naira on bad leadership.

For instance, Twitter user, @OluwaGodwin_T wrote, “This is what giant of Africa should look like. Not like a self-proclaimed giant of Africa with clueless leaders, most especially the one currently on a medical trip in London."

Another user, @s_bendel blamed this on the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress and its leaders alongside those who voted them into power. He said, “While (Bola) Tinubu's demonic APC and the disaster Buhari have destroyed the naira and the economy. Thank you South West people for voting them into power.”

Using the hashtag #BuhariMustGo, @AjayiWizeman said, “Naira devaluation has murdered the naira!”

For @Axiom87397339, Ghana could achieve this because one of its past leaders, Jerry Rawlings, fought corruption while Nigerian leaders "celebrate corruption". 

He said, “Because Jerry J. Rawlings (may his soul RIP) arrested corruption, ordered the execution of corrupt Generals Kotei, Joy Amedume, Roger Felli, and Utuka, then also three corrupt former heads of state Afrifa, Acheampong & Akuffo. But the reverse is the case in this country (Nigeria). We reward criminals, ex-convicts, murderers with presidential seats, political appointments, contracts, etc. Recycling the same incompetent old people back to power, same people that ruled our grandparents and our parents 40-50 years ago are still ruling us and our children.”

Nkechi Okafor said, “With this failure in government, I'm not surprised our naira is useless but we're hopeful come 2023 it will rise again.”

Social media user, Arubi Alobo, wrote, “Prof (Charles) Soludo proposed revaluation of the naira just like Ghana did. But the ancient leaders with dirty brown brains in Nigeria rejected it. As long as Nigeria continues to be ruled by leaders with tired ideas, nothing good can ever happen in the country.”


Frank Abah said, “Kudos to them! These are people who rose beyond politics and ethnic sentiments and saved their currency when it was on the edge of the apocalypse. Some time ago, Ghana redenominated their currency by slashing out three zeros from their currency.
"Professor Soludo proposed the same for Nigerian naira in 2008, but politics in Nigeria nipped it in the bud (because it was felt it would be the end of business for those in the bureau de change). Today our currency is nothing to write home about. Nigeria, the giant of Africa indeed."

The cedi, Ghana's local currency ended the first quarter of 2021 on a high note with a year-to-date appreciation of 0.6 per cent to the US dollar.

According to a Joy Business report monitored by GhanaWeb, the cedi's performance is almost similar to that of 2020.

Additionally, the cedi has profited from growth-related efforts such as diversified exports of cocoa, gold, among others.

Explaining the reasons for the cedi's performance, Senior Economic Analyst at Databank Research, Courage Martey, said, "the Ghana cedi ended the first quarter of 2021 with yet another impressive performance, similar to what it did in the first quarter of 2020."

"You will recall that in the first quarter of 2020, the local currency ended the quarter with an appreciation of almost 1.7% against the US dollar and that made it the second most resilient currency in our basket of 15 African currencies, only behind the Egyptian pound."

"It is quite impressive, against the fact that the pandemic has not yet given way, so there is still so many uncertainties within the global financial market space," he said.

Martey attributed the cedi's strong performance to the Bank of Ghana's intervention measures, particularly in the Forex (FX) Forward market.

"Immense thanks to the Bank of Ghana's intervention measures, particularly on the FX forward market but the significant inflows of foreign portfolio investments into the bond market, especially during this year has been significantly supportive of the Ghana cedi to put up the kind of performance we see in the first quarter of 2021," he said.

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