Accra, Oct. 26, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Wednesday concluded consultations with economic players ahead of a three-day Cabinet retreat to resolve the pressure on the economy and the rising cost of living.
The consultations, which started on Tuesday at the Jubilee House, Accra, were to enable the government to get the players up to speed with measures being adopted to mitigate current economic challenges and to get their buy-in to those arrangements.
Top issues that were discussed over the two-day period included updates on the government’s economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the depreciation of the Cedi, and the collaborative effort needed to get the economy back on track.
Some eight stakeholders, including the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Association of Banks, Transport Operators, Forex Bureau Association of Ghana, Market Women, the Ghana Employers Association, the Private Enterprise Federation, and the Trades Union Congress held “candid” discussions with the President and his economic management team.
President Akufo-Addo, in short remarks before the meetings which were held behind closed doors, told the players that the government was on the cusp of concluding negotiations with the IMF for a lifeline to enhance economic reforms and maintain a sustainable economic growth rate in the long term.
He said the IMF support would help Ghana deal with the balance of payment, stem the depreciation of the cedi and generally help stabilize the economy and place it back on a firm trajectory of growth.
“The IMF negotiations are ongoing. We are close to concluding them,” he said, hopeful that when the Fund agreed on Ghana’s request, the arrangement would place the country’s economy on an even keel.
Thus, the stakeholder engagements, the President indicated, would enable the government to appreciate their concerns with the programme and ascertain how those interests would be addressed before the negotiations ended.
President Akufo-Addo also harped on the need to rein in the activities of currency speculators, and black-market operators, to halt the depreciation of the Cedi, which has taken a severe hit in the last month, losing almost 50 per cent value against major trading currencies in the past week.
He also called for a collaborative effort on the part of stakeholders and the citizenry at large to deal with the difficulties besetting the Ghanaian economy.
At separate interactions, Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta briefed the stakeholders on the state of the negotiations, and the important benchmarks and issues that were being addressed in the consultations with the IMF.
When the Ghana Employers Association took its turn on Wednesday, Mr Daniel Acheampong, the President of the group remarked that the present economic challenge was not wholly domestic.
“We know that what is going on in the country is not occasioned by any individual or group. Global events like COVID-19, like the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, have their toes in every economy in the world.
“And we, as employers, are mindful of that. We are feeling the pinch, but we know that by working together we should be able to find a way out of the menace,” he said.
The President of the Forex Bureau Association of Ghana, Mr. K.T. Dadzie, pointed out that the free fall of the Cedi was an orchestration by speculators, saying that forex rates improved the moment the announcement of the meeting between forex bureaus operators and the Bank of Ghana was made.
“With the announcement that we were even meeting yesterday, the rate started coming down. It means it is not natural; this has all been done by people’s speculation and trying to make a windfall out of the situation that we are in,” he said.
When the market women took their turn, they expressed frustration on the prohibitive cost of transporting produce from the farm gates to the markets due largely to consistent fuel price hikes.
They attributed that situation to escalating prices of locally produced food items.
However, like all the other stakeholders, they assured the President that they would lend the needed support to the government’s response to save the economy.
President Akufo-Addo who would lead discussions at the Cabinet retreat is expected to address the nation on the outcome of the meeting, and the way forward for the country.
GNA