By Dennis Peprah
Odomase, (B/R), Jan. 12, GNA – A national task force is needed urgently to monitor and control rising prices of food items and building materials in the country, Mr Yaw Dabie Appiah Mensah, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suggested.
He, therefore, called on the government to collaborate with the Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) to set up the taskforce in the supreme interest of the good people of the country.
Mr Mensah, a former Regional Organiser of the NPP in the then Brong-Ahafo Region made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Odomase, in the Sunyani West Municipality.
He said although the government had done well to stabilize the rising prices of fuel and appreciation of the Ghana Cedi to the US Dollar, it had not impacted on the socio-economic lives of the people because market prices of basic food products and building materials remained higher.
“I personally went around some satellite markets in the Sunyani Municipality to do some window shopping, where I realised that the reduction of the fuel prices and appreciation of the Ghana cedi had not corresponded with the prices of food items and building products,” he stated.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, Mr Mensah called on the government to do something immediately, saying “the situation is making our party unpopular in the eyes of the people.”
“If the government has been able to strategise and put in place realistic interventions to tackle and reduce the rising cost of fuel and depreciation of the Ghana cedi to the dollar, then, GUTA must do something to ensure that their members comply and reduce prices of their products,” he said.
Mr Mensah said national economic reconstruction remained shared and collective responsibility of all Ghanaians, saying “it would be sign of ingratitude if the government is doing everything possible to stabilize the economy and make things better and we as citizens try to run the nation down.”
GNA