The President of the African Investment Group, Dr. Sam Ankrah, has urged the government to implement policies that will bring stability and help businesses deal with shocks in 2023.

Many businesses were impacted severely by inflation and the depreciation of the cedi in 2022.

Speaking to Joy Business, Dr. Ankrah said the financial markets lack confidence and stability, hence the call on government to support businesses. 

“Going forward I'm expecting and I'm looking forward to stability. And again, it is not just about stability by words. If the market is not stabilized, whatever we do will yield no results and businesses cannot plan”.

“As I said to you, the slippage of the currency is a huge problem, it cannot be done overnight. But I'm sure a solid proposal to International Monetary Fund to back them [government] on a perching situation for a period just to bring some sanity into the market is something that we should research and look into. This is because without stability, all these we are talking about, the fundamentals cannot be built overnight”, he pointed out.

He added that without stability in the economy, businesses will suffer.

 “So, whiles we are looking to close our boundaries from importing so many of these products that we have all talked about, we need that stability. And from my point of view, I believe that stabilising where we can have a currency perch for at least some years - five years even - and then sought out home grown policies where we raise higher taxes on importation and give tax leeway to local production”.

Furthermore, Dr. Ankrah said “not giving forex to importers to import certain products does not solve the problem, it is not a policy. Anybody can get an export credit and come to the market and sell and then buy the dollars from the black market and put a payback after its being sold".