The Traders Advocacy Group has directed its members to increase the prices of goods and services by 80 per cent in retaliation to the government’s reversal of the 30 per cent benchmark value discount at the ports.

The General Secretary of the group, Nana Poku, told journalists on Wednesday, 2 March 2022: “We are, by this press conference, creating an awareness of this new development to all our members and urging them to increase the prices of goods and services by 80 per cent, just as the government has done”, adding: “After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander”.

Justifying their decision, Nana Poku said: “It’s not our fault”, explaining: “The government has not resourced any single trader in the country to start trading, so, at the end of the day, if the government wants more, we, the traders also, will not lose our capital.

He said what is “good for our members and the entire trading public is what we are advocating, so, those that have come out in support of the government, ‘bravo!’ but [for us], what we are saying is what is so important to us: that if the government has gone up 80 per cent, our traders are being urged to also go 80 per cent. It’s as simple as A, B, C”, he argued.

Nana Poku also accused the government of deception, saying, “The government is so smart making it as if the reduction is 30 per cent”.

The traders also said it was high time Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia arrested the fall of the cedi as he promised a few years ago before coming into office.

“We are, also by this press conference calling on the Vice-President of Ghana to arrest the rise of the dollar against the cedi, as he promised. Mr Vice-President, where are you? That is the question everybody is asking”, Nana Poku noted.

The cedi is currently selling at GHS7.15 to a dollar.