OUR CURRENCY; THE CEDI OR THE DOLLAR

The pride of a nation is not only in her people but in her way of life; her culture! This culture can only be defined through her dressing, her language, her food, and her beliefs, among others. Like all nations, this pride is also exhibited in the form of some national totems. Ghana like all nations has her national flag, the national emblem in the form of the Coat of Arms. Although we have several languages, English has been adopted as the formal national language as a result of our colonization by the British, in order to make communication especially internationally, easy. Also like all nations, Ghana has her own currency, the cedi and this is what is used locally for various transactions. Hence for all types of trading, the Ghanaian cedi is the form of exchange be it the exchange of goods or the exchange of services.

In recent times however, and rather increasing at an alarming rate, the cedi is being substituted for the dollar. Although other currencies like the pound sterling and the euro have also been recognized as some medium of exchange in the country, the American dollar seems to be the number one choice. This has gone on to the extent that people have become bold enough to request that certain payments be made in dollars.

A couple of weeks ago, I was told that a colleague who had been searching for accommodation for quite some time had finally found a place. I was however shocked and disappointed when a few days later, I got the information that the owner of the house had actually and shamelessly requested for payment to be made in dollars. The person did not request that the equivalent of the money in dollars be paid in cedi. No! The owner of the house requested that the cedi be converted into dollars and then paid! This is happening in Ghana these days! How far would we go as a nation and as a people, in the name of globalization, modernization, urbanization, among others?

A look around us shows the extent we have gone as a nation in the name of being trendy. Some of our people have lost their language, way of dressing and perhaps cultural identity in totality. Most citizens cannot even sing the national anthem or recite the national pledge. Within this country are people who cannot even narrate the stories of our past; the story of the struggle for our independence, our national heroes to even talk about singing our local songs. On the contrary, the country is now filled with people who know more about the facts or the histories of other foreign nations especially the western world. We now pride ourselves in the knowledge of the western countries than our own history. Sadly enough, our educational system in itself has been structured to lay emphasis on knowledge acquisition which dwells solely on the events and findings of the western world.

As if that is not enough, our own leaders are encouraging all this. Would any western country ever adopt our currency as a mode of exchange? Your guess is as good as mine! How do we expect the value of the cedi to be appreciative if we are not even using it as a medium of trade in our very own country? We are currently all crying about hard times and the decreasing value of the cedi when we ourselves are fueling all these things.

A visit to some parts of the city of Accra would reveal that the medium of exchange being adopted these days is the dollar. The latest addition to that list is the twin city of Ghana. Sekondi-Takoradi! Gradually, the western region is becoming the worse culprit! All in the name of the oil-find, people within this region especially house owners have become greedy overnight. A lot of house owners have driven away tenants just to make room for foreign investors. Consequently, these house owners are charging crazily insane amounts of money as rents on their buildings to the extent that the ordinary Ghanaian living in the region especially Takoradi, can no longer afford to rent a simple room. Where do we expect our citizens to live if they cannot afford a simple accommodation? On the streets? Shamefully, and sadly enough, the foreign investors themselves are complaining. The charges on the accommodation are way too much! We talk about Ghana being a middle-income country but our current situation is saying otherwise. How do we expect the country to develop if we are driving away and even discouraging foreign investors? People are only becoming cheap! They are taking undue advantage and hence failing to reason.

We are all complaining about the tough economy when we are actually the ones responsible for the hardship in the country. Look no further next time, when you are looking for a reason to complain or when you are looking for someone to blame for the hard economy. We are all to blame! In as much as we blame our politicians for sometimes encouraging all these, let us not forget that on our own, we are all politicians! We play our own politics all the time without actually realizing it. Our actions and inactions has its own effects on our environment, our economy, our own selves, and most importantly, on the nation.

If we are gradually making the dollar, pounds, euro and other currencies as a medium of trade in this country, we should all be prepared for the hard times ahead. Anyone who recommends trading locally with another currency apart from ours should very well be prepared to weep when he or she walks unto the street or the market to make a purchase. The cedi is our local currency. It should be our pride. It should be treasured. We should be ashamed for not valuing it and rather devaluing it. Should we not do away with the cedi and only trade with the dollar? We might as well as endorse colonialism...

Published: Daily Graphic (10^th November, 2011).