Joseph Paddy, the Director of Industrial Relations and Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), has called for urgent policy reforms to tackle the rising cost of production.
He pointed out key challenges faced by businesses, including high interest rates, escalating utility bills, and costly import tariffs on raw materials.
Mr. Paddy urged the government to take swift action to ease these burdens, emphasizing the need to enhance the competitiveness of local businesses in both domestic and international markets.
“It was welcome news to the business community. Because one of our challenges is that, as Ghana, our economy is an import economy. We’re doing importation. So right now, we are driving to production, the welcome news we will agree to. That’s why our economy should be: manufacturing-driven and production-driven, not import-driven.”
” But a major challenge we’re faced with in that area, the factors of production, is that you cannot do away with capital. And one of our major concerns was capital and the cost of borrowing. Price-wise, we are competitive with our neighbors or with our competitors. The cost of production in the country is extremely high,”
“So in recent years, the hype of utilities that came on board is because if you are going to produce at a rate of about an increase of about 40% increase, it only comes to electricity,”
Mr. Paddy called for stronger regulatory frameworks to manage the informal sector, stabilize the cedi to reduce import costs, and adopt a non-partisan approach to national and economic development for sustainable long-term growth.
