The Trader Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has kicked against the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) call for closure of shops on August 29, 2022, to register members’ displeasure with the government’s abysmal economic performance.

With a claim of having over 11,000 members in its fold across the country, TAGG said the solution to the current economic woes did not lie in the closure of shops, especially in the face of competition from their foreign cohorts, but in the enforcement of fiscal discipline and policies.

According to the group, the traders can manage to survive the current economic through adjusting the prices of their goods and services as and when the situation demands.

The General Secretary of TAGG, Nana Poku at a news conference held in Accra yesterday, indicated that when there is a rise in crude oil prices on the international market, Filling Stations don’t cease operation but pass on the cost to the consumer, in order to remain in business.

This, he said the traders cannot act differently by closing down their shops in an era where competition for customers had become so keen. Nana Poku said the decision by GUTA will only profit their foreign counterparts and retail giants like Melcom, ShopRite, Game, Palace, Chinese mall, and the rest.

He argued that the challenge at hand goes beyond closing down shops, as such a directive will “rather harm and affect the already struggling traders.”

The Gen. Secretary reiterated that while the call was not a magic solution to the existing financial and economic difficulties, the fear to compound on the economic hardship that the traders are facing is real.

Nana Poku said traders cannot be sidelined when there is a roll call of major contributors to the Ghana economy and, seemingly, they cannot be ostracized in government’s scheme of things.

He said the challenge with the trading community was the government’s defiance of traders’ plights to offer a continual tax holidays for foreign multinational companies.

“We will like to draw your attention to the fact that, our research shows that, the percentage of Ghanaian importers in the country currently is less than (20%), making foreign national importers more than eighty percent (80%). This shocking statistic begs the question, why is the government allowing the activities of foreigners to negatively impact Ghanaian traders so much?” he laments.

What is the way forward?

Nana Poku suggested that Government must take steps to arrest the black-market money racketeering and enforce the law against those who flout it as well as implement a policy that can resist a certain threshold that limits how much funds multinational companies can repatriate back home.

He also added that the pricing of local products and services in dollars should be discouraged and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) must stipulate the various roles to be played by both indigenes and foreign nationals should be enforced.

The General Secretary called on the government to sack the Finance Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana for their abysm performance.