Members of the trading community have agreed to rescind a decision to close down their shops on Monday (August, 29, 2022) in protest over the depreciating cedi against the U.S dollar.

The decision was arrived at after a four-hour crunch closed-door meeting with members of the Council of State on Thursday afternoon (25^th August, 2022).

Joy Business is gathering that the members of the business community charged the Council of State to intervene immediately in finding a lasting solution to the falling cedi, a situation they lamented has been eroding their gains.

They consisted of the Leadership of Market Women Associations,  Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Mobile Phone Dealers Association, Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, among others,

“There will be a press conference to address the media after signing a resolution to rescind the decision and also withdraw the intended demonstration,” some members of the trading community told Joy Business.

Background

Addressing a press conference on Monday (22 August, 2022), the President of GUTA, Joseph Obeng, stressed that the worsening state of the cedi has eroded the gains of businesses after the Covid-19 pandemic and the shocks from the Russia-Ukraine war.

He, therefore, called on government to prioritise activities of the trading community by stabilising the local currency against the dollar.

According to him, the decline in the country’s currency will deepen the hardship faced by traders since all their profits have been eroded by the depreciation of the cedi.

Cedi's poor performance

As of Monday, August 15, 2022, the cedi had lost about ¢3.15 on the face value to the dollar since the beginning of the year.

Dollar shortage hit the forex market as the rate of depreciation of the Ghana cedi was at GH¢10 to one US dollar.

Checks at the time with some banks and forex bureau by Joy Business indicated that traders were struggling to get the American currency to buy for trading transaction.