President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke, has called on manufacturing firms that produced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the height of the pandemic to retool their operations.

He revealed that it has become imperative to look into other business opportunities considering government’s rollback on its mandatory wearing of masks policy in the fight against COVID-19. Mr Ayim-Darke explained that despite the fact that the manufacturing of these protective equipment were profitable, it was never intended to be a long term plan of government.

“I don’t believe I’m saying it wrongly, but I believe there will be a few casualties. But I pray that some of the gains they made over the period, the exponential gains, can be good reserves for them to look into other space of engagement. Because we did say in the early days of COVID that PPEs will be a short term intervention or operations. Unless otherwise, a number of them will need to retool and reshape their operations”.
Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke

The AGI President noted that persons who suffered blows to their businesses following the directive by President Akufo-Addo on the reversal of the mandatory wearing of masks currently have to find a way to get rid of any excess PPEs in their possession. Mr Ayim-Drake explained that as business folks, it is crucial for one to “scan” the environment to ascertain the demands in the market, insisting that the “duty will not fall on the President to do that for you”.

“So the action of the President, to him, he has a bigger agenda that he’s managing. You take advantage of opportunities, some will take advantage of circumstances or phenomenon to create wealth. So, if you do not calculate your activities well and the circumstance expires, there will be some casualties that you cannot run away from it. So, we only pray that those who had invested heavily into some PPEs hopefully by now would have thought of how to dispose some, sell it out, donate them, and such product you do not overstock it such that you manage your stock reasonably”.
Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke

Media cautioned to be mindful in reportage

Following this, Dr Ayim-Darke urged media personnel to be mindful of how they “talk down the cedi”. He expressed that when issues such as the free fall of the cedi and rising cost of fuel are reported in a sensational manner by media houses, it encourages banks and others to stockpile the dollar in order to reap benefits from the rising of the dollar.

“With the current intervention from the BoG, one of the triggers that was worsening the plight was the exchange rate related effect. And that, with this recent intervention from the BoG, we realize there’s some calmness on the business front. And we also pray the media manages their drive of speculation and you chase every change in fuel price on the market”.

Citing the case of the exchange rate, Dr Ayim-Drake noted that at a stage he believed there was the “theory of speculative activity” feeding into it. This, he explained, was due to the fact in a day “I could see the dollar jump from 8.1 to 8.4 and it was alarming”.

Dr Ayim-Darke intimated that although the AGI has called on the Governor of the Central Bank to find a way to crack down the activities of some persons popularly known as “Katakata boys” and “goro boys”, who engage in “exchange rates”, media personnel must be circumspect in their reportage of activities which tends to incite some people to hoard foreign currencies.