Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, has said the idea for the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) to embark on strike is premeditated for a purpose.
He claimed the idea of the ongoing strike is to make the Nana Addo-led government ostracized despite meetings with the association to address issues amicably.
" . . This is not the response government is looking to get, government is very dissapointed in their action," he said, after he said government has had a series of engagements with them to address their grievances.
" . . at least even if you won't applaud the government, you won't do something like this to make the government look very unpopular, that to us is not fair," he told host Kwesi Aboagye on NEAT FM’s morning show, 'Ghana Montie'.
Members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) on Wednesday, October 19, closed shops in Accra to protest the deteriorating economic situation.
The group described the industrial action, which will end on Monday, October 24, as a “pinch” on the government to urgently address the depreciating cedi, high-interest rate and inflation.
GUTA announced its decision after engaging in a three-hour meeting with some members of the Council of State.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana
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My little knowledge is that the traders can deposit their money in their bank account, get a visa card and when they travel just get an ATM machine that accept visa cards. Withdraw their money to pay for their services likewise for their goods. My wife does that, and it is working for her. She also travels to Dubai, China, Korea and other countries. This can reduce their problem of getting the dollars from the black market for fiscal money they are complaining of.
In all of these, I do not want to believe that our president, Akufo-Addo, is perturbed because he strongly presents the interest of mother Ghana and not that of parochial GUTA-interest.
The depreciation of the cedi against the dollar is also due to the type of goods GUTA uses the hard-earned dollar to import into the country. If you look at the vendors along the streets of Accra and Kumasi and the types of goods they sell, you will agree with me that the government should draw a policy to regulate it so as to curtail and promote made in Ghana goods. It is not in the interest of Ghana to encourage the importation of foreign goods, let alone secondhand trash, and to promote production in foreign countries as well as employment. In all of these, I do not believe the cedi will appreciate against the dollar unless we produce most of the goods we import, so as to back the cedi with production.
The people are rather disappointed in you and you are saying what? In 2022 the amount of cedis that will give you 100,000.00 dollars, today same amount of cedis will give you 49,000.00 dollars. What do you want the businesses to do. As if that is not enough the GRA also comes in with their voodoo tax assessment.
GUTA is only interested in profits, importation and selling even sub-standard things. They are only proud of importation. Why won't our currency suffer? Where do they expect the gov to get the dollars from?
ndc is behind it all.