Butchers at the Mallam Attah Market have lamented the depreciating value of the cedi.
This follows the Cedi’s recent sharp decline after it was pegged at 10 Cedis to the US dollar.
The butchers complained to JoyNews’ Evans Mensah on Tuesday that the current challenges with the depreciating cedi have been crippling their businesses and increasing the cost of importing livestock from Burkina Faso and other countries.
“In Ghana, we don’t have cows. How many cows do we have in Ghana? We import them from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Togo so we change the cedi into CFA franc anytime the CFA rises,” one of the butchers said.
Tuesday’s edition of PM Express was dubbed ‘Market Edition’. It focused on the the effects of inflation on trading activities at the Mallam Attah Market.
The butchers called on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to address the depreciating value of the cedi or resign.
“Now if you have 10, 000 Ghana cedis and you are doing business by two months’ time, it will depreciate at about 8,000 or 8,500… the cedi doesn’t stand at one place that is our main problem,” they noted.
In a related development, members of the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA), say they will close all their shops on Monday, August 29, to demonstrate against the persistent depreciation of the Ghana Cedi.
According to them, the rapid fall of the Cedi is having a negative impact on their businesses, hence their decision to stage the protest.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, the President of the Association, Mr 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 the trading community as GUTA prepares to embark on its August 29 protest.
“By the dictates of the trading community, we declare closure of shops in Accra, on Monday, 29th August, 2022, to officially demonstrate these concerns to government”, Mr Obeng said, amidst cheers from other aggrieved members.