The President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) says many businesses in the country have been struggling to stay afloat since the last quarter of 2022.

Speaking on The Probe on JoyNews, Joseph Obeng stated that as a result of inflation and the depreciation of the cedi that characterised the last months of 2022, many businesses lost more than half of their capital.

He stated that “so, most businesses are unable to even import the volumes that we used to import. That's why even the port is dry. If your capital is $100,000 and it has been depleted by 50%, now you are only able to change by virtue of the depreciation, only $50,000. So can you bring the same quantity of goods now?”he quizzed.

“The last few months of 2022 have seen businesses suffering too much. We are actually suffocating. If you look at the last quarter of 2022, that's where the exchange rate, the depreciation of the cedi, reached its peak and so most of our capital got depleted, over 50%” he said.

Mr Obeng indicated that even though the cedi has appreciated in the past few months of 2023, businesses are still “overburdened” by taxes and the cost of doing business is also high, affecting businesses.

“The inflation that we experienced about 53% was tied up to the exchange rate, the depreciation last year. And so if the exchange rate is being stabilised, then it is expected that inflation will follow suit. Why is inflation not coming down? Inflation is not coming down because even the Bank of Ghana keeps on increasing the monetary policy rate which is not the solution.”

The GUTA President said these decisions also compound the cost of doing business.