The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and Traders Advocacy Group (TAGG) have been divided over the closure of shops amidst of economic hardship.
The National President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association, Joseph Obeng speaking on Okay FM monitored by Humbleike.com has directed all its members to close down shops in Accra.
According to him they are protesting the high cost of doing business in Ghana as a result of the economic meltdown.
He claims the depreciation of the domestic currency, Cedi, to the US Dollar is making it difficult for most traders to stay in business.
Not even a last-minute move by the Council of State would stop GUTA from embarking on the action, he added.
He says they want put their displeasure before the government for him to know how hard the economy is so that they can do something about
However, it seems things are different with the Traders Advocacy Group (TAGG) which is also a leading trading group in Ghana
The General Secretary of TAGG, Nana Opoku has urged its members to keep their shops open as they engage government on possible ways to address the Cedi fall against the Dollar than closing their shops.
“We would like to stress again that members of TAGG and the general trading public of Ghana should not close their shops but should carry on with their daily business activities so as not to give an undue advantage to the multinational malls in Ghana because of our protest.”
According to him, closing their shops will not affect the exchange rate but will rather spell doom of their already struggling businesses as foreign competitors are already stifling the local industry.
“The executives of TAGG in a bid to alleviate the pains of its members have held several meetings with the leadership and administrators of the current government to put our problems to them directly and to demand answers to the dire challenges we are currently facing as traders. But after several meetings we have learnt with the utmost regret that the managers of the country’s economy seem to have no solutions to the rapid depreciation of the cedi and the high costs of doing business in the country.”
SOURCE: Mubarak Yakubu/Voicefmonline.com
