The Ghana Employers Association has told the Government of Ghana to, as a matter of urgency, control the fall of the Cedi against the Dollar.
President of the Association Alex Frimpong told TV3 in an interview that the poor performance of the local currency is having a toll on businesses for which the government must act as as soon as possible.
Mr Frimpong said “government must do everything within its powers to ensure that the Cedi stabilizes so that it doesn’t affect the economic activities of the people in this very country. Yesterday, some of the stores in Kumasi were closed due to the hardships that we have elaborated.
“I think that if government doesn’t sit up and doesn’t find solutions as soon as possible, I think it will escalate into something else. When citizens start complaining about such issues and we don’t find solutions to them, definitely it is going to cost the country than what it should have been if you have taken very immediate measures to curb the effect.”
Some traders in the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi on Monday October 11 locked up their shops following the woes of the Cedi against the Dollar and its effect on businesses.
They are also protesting the high taxes they are paying.
TV3’s Ashanti Regional correspondent William Evans Nkum reported that parts of the business community in Kumasi are shut down.
“Most of the merchants here” he said, “deal in food commodities.”
“We want the government to come and dialogue with us. The cost of doing business is high due to tax and the Cedi performance. We have been using our profit margins to pay tax which is not fair,” a trader said.
Some forex bureaus are selling the dollar at ¢11.2 to $1 as at Saturday, October 8, 2022.
Some forex bureau operators expressed hope the the government and the the Bank of Ghana will institute strong measures to curtail the fall of the Cedi against the major trading currencies.
The BoG earlier announced that the $1.13billion Cocoa Syndicated loan which has been signed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) was going to help strengthen the currency.
The BoG has identified five key reasons for the woes of the local currency.
These are “The strength of the US dollar, Investor reaction to Credit Rating Downgrade, Non-Roll over of Maturing Bonds, The sharp rise in crude oil prices and impact on the Oil Bill, Loss of External Financing.”
The measures introduced to resolve these, according to the BoG, are the “Gold Purchase Program to increase foreign exchange reserves; Special Foreign Exchange Auction for the Bulk Distribution Company’s (BDCs) to help with the importation of petroleum products; Bank of Ghana is entering into a cooperation agreement with the mining companies to provide BOG with the opportunity to buy gold as when it becomes available.
“The Bank of Ghana is supporting the banking sector with foreign currency liquidity to help meet the demand for external payments. The recently approved USD750,000,000 Afriexim loan facility by Parliament, once disbursed, will boost the foreign exchange position of the country and help restore confidence.
“The Cocoa Loan is expected in the last quarter of the year. This facility will also help provide more foreign currency to help address the cedi depreciation. In the short term, we expect that when the IMF programme is finalized, it will also go a long way to help restore confidence in the economy and drive portfolio flows.”
Source: 3News.com