GUTA Calls On Members To Reduce Prices Of Goods

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has urged its members to reduce the prices of goods and services.

The appeal follows the recent appreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies like the US dollar.

The cedi has lost about 53.8 percent of its value since the beginning of this year.

This was attributed to the demand for foreign exchange to support Ghana’s unbridled demand for imports by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta.

But over the last few weeks, the cedi has seen some level of appreciation and has been described by Bloomberg as the “world’s biggest gain against the US dollar”.

In an interview on Opemsuo radio’s Nkwantananso Show, the Vice President of the GUTA, Mr. Clement Boateng explained the motive behind their appeal.

“Since last week our cedi is appreciating and fuel prices have even gone down. What we can do as a union is to appeal to our members and the trading community to adjust and reduce prices to give consumers some respite.”

He also indicated that there is a monitoring mechanism to ensure their members comply.

“We’ve been monitoring and we’ve realised that some traders have reduced their goods. But we can’t force them to comply. That is why we are appealing. We are confident that the majority of our members will comply.”

According to him, electrical cables which used to be GHC300 for a bundle has reduced to GHC250 in some shops and GHC270 in others as of last week.

The Bank of Ghana says a cedi now sells at €13.23; £15.40 and $12.56.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini