GUTA begins new initiative to tackle depreciating cedi

The Ghana Union of Traders Association, (GUTA) has begun an initiative known as the “Income in, income out” policy to deal with the situation of the depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the major trading currencies.

According to the President of GUTA, Dr Joseph Obeng, the initiative in collaboration with the Ghana Exports Promotion Authority (GEPA) will require every importer to trade in an export commodity in a foreign country to use the proceed for importation purposes.

The initiative when successful will reduce the overburden on the dollar.

Dr Obeng said, “Income-in, income-out simply means that we go overseas to outsource our goods and so when we are going we want to send some goods from Ghana and so we use the proceeds thereof also to buy the goods and we are going to develop this policy with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority.”

He made the disclosure in his welcome remarks at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Breakfast Meeting in Accra under the theme: Achieving a sustainable exchange rate stability: our options.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Alhassan Andani has appealed to the trading Community to defend the Ghanaian cedi with their choices.

“Choices for imports are about consumption and literally anybody can consume so they tend to be easy choices.  Choices about producing goods and services that are of competitive standards both in your country and outside of the country are very tough choices. Are we as Ghanaians choosing the easy path which leads to nowhere or are we choosing the difficult path that will lead us somewhere?”

Mr Andani believes that passionate efforts by all stakeholders to make good use of the currency without relying much on the dollars can strengthen the Ghana cedi.