The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has asked its members to disregard directives by the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA) to close their shops.
GUTA directed its members to strike on August 29, 2022 in a bid to draw the attention of the government to their concerns regarding the increased cost of imports and production.
TAGG, however, believes the move is counterproductive as it would further worsen the plight of the trading community.
TAGG Secretary, Nana Poku, stressed that such a move would only drive customers of local traders to the multinational businesses that already have a larger market share.
“There is no way to sugarcoat the heavy financial crisis facing the trading community especially in the wake of the unbridled shortfall of the Ghana Cedi against the dollar which has brought untold hardship to our members. We believe that the Ministry of trade is partly to blame for failing to develop an effective policy framework to help solve such trade issues in the country but the purpose of this press conference is not to apportion blame but to urge our members to reject and desist from following the harmful directive of some other trade unions”.
Nana Poku said GUTA’s directive will rather hurt local businesses by driving customers to other foreign owned businesses who are already “sniffing life out of local businesses”.