Abstract

This study investigates how national identity is discursively enacted in the Governor of the Bank of Ghana’s Cedi@60 launch speech. Situated within the gap in scholarship on how economic discourse contributes to nation-building, the study adopts Ruth Wodak’s (2001, 2009) Discourse Rhetorical Approach to analyse the linguistic and rhetorical strategies through which identity is constructed. The analysis reveals nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivisation, and intensification strategies, demonstrating that the Cedi is framed as a financial instrument and a cultural-historical emblem of Ghana’s sovereignty and resilience. The findings further show that economic discourse performs an ideological function by transforming monetary policy into a narrative of national belonging and moral legitimacy. Inclusive pronouns and collective appeals emerged as notable linguistic resources for construction of national identity in the discourse. The study contributes to DHA by extending its application to economic discourse and offers directions for future research.