Traders urge action on weakening Cedi

Traders in the nation’s second biggest city, Kumasi, have urged managers of the nation’s economy to do more to halt the weakening of the country’s currency, the cedi.

The government needs to “move faster than it is doing now” to stabilise things and end the jitters.

Shop owners and market women, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), complained that the rate at which prices of goods keep changing was collapsing their businesses.

The falling rate of the cedi, they said, has led to a sharp drop in their daily sales and returns.

Retail traders in hair extension, African print, ladies’ wear and lace, for example, said there has been a drastic slow down of their business over the past six months.

Those dealing in hair extension previously made sales of about GH¢20,000.00 a month but are now earning GH¢2,500.00, while that of African print sellers had fallen by about 50 per cent from GH¢20,000.00 to GH¢10,000.00.

The situation of traders engaged in ladies wear business is not any better as their monthly average of GH¢5,000.00 had slumped to a little over GH¢2,000.00.

Some traders declined to be identified and said even more worrying was the high cost of doing business as they keep adding more money to their capital to buy the same quantity of goods they previously get from their suppliers.

Again, there is growing reluctance on the part of the suppliers to give out their products on credit because of the continued depreciation of the cedi.

The traders said as things stood, the economic outlook did not give much confidence and that their expectation was that the government would move aggressively to restore hope.