Reconstitute FX Development Committee over continuous cedi depreciation - GUTA

The Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) has asked the government to reconstitute the committee set up to investigate the causes of the cedi depreciation and recommend solutions to the phenomenon.

President of GUTA Dr. Joseph Obeng says the cedi depreciation coupled with other crises.

He noted that the depreciation of the cedi against other major trading currencies is getting out of hand, and the increase in the monetary policy rate is also leading to a high lending rate in the country.

He lamented that the challenges confronting them have threatened the very survival of businesses of their members.

He stressed that the government must immediately reconstitute the committee set up by the Ministry of Finance known as the Foreign Exchange Committee made up of stakeholders to solicit ideas to tackle the situation head-on.

“It could be recalled that since December 2021 when the dollar was 6.4 cedis, our working capitals have been depleted by 40%. Now that, the dollar has reached about 9.00 cedis, our worst fear is that we are now going to make Christmas orders from our suppliers, which may aggravate the situation.

For them, as business owners, their worst fear is if the situation is not put under control it could reach a point where they could be using one million Ghana Cedis to purchase just one hundred dollars.

GUTA further caution of a situation where if care is not taken there could be serious panic in the system which would lead to people investing in forex to protect their hard-earned capital, aggravating the situation government is expected to handle.

He also expressed worry about the high freight charges at the ports.