Policy activist Raymond Ablorh has called on Parliament to immediately pass Ghana’s long-delayed Consumer Protection Bill and Competition Bill, warning that without strong legal safeguards, the country’s much-touted economic recovery will remain meaningless to ordinary citizens.
According to Ablorh, recent reports celebrating the cedi’s rebound and the gradual decline in inflation mask a deeper problem in the real economy. While macroeconomic indicators suggest progress, he argued that these gains evaporate the moment consumers step into the marketplace.
Prices of basic goods, he said, have refused to respond to improved conditions, effectively denying households any relief from months of economic hardship.
“This is the tyranny of the asymmetric market, where the cost of living is governed by an unwritten, cruel law: Rocket Up, Feather Down. When global crises strike, prices ascend instantaneously. Yet, when stability returns, those same prices stand defiant, ‘sticky’ at the old crisis rates.”
Raymond Ablorh, Policy Activist
Ablorh argued that the result is a form of permanent economic pressure, where the cost of living remains elevated regardless of official claims of recovery. He insisted that the wealth created through national sacrifice, fiscal tightening, and economic reforms is being absorbed at the retail level as excess profit, benefiting a small group while the majority struggle to cope with basic expenses.
He was particularly critical of what he sees as the state’s continued reliance on moral persuasion rather than firm regulation. In his view, repeated appeals to traders to act responsibly or reduce prices amount to little more than empty gestures.
Price gouging, he argued, should not be framed as a moral failure but treated as a serious offence that undermines the functioning of the market and erodes public trust in economic governance.
For Ablorh, Parliament’s failure to enact robust consumer and competition laws represents a deeper constitutional problem. He insisted that protecting consumers is not an optional policy choice but a constitutional obligation clearly set out in the 1992 Constitution.
Article 36(1), he noted, requires the state to manage the economy in a way that secures the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every person. Allowing price-fixing and cartel behaviour to persist, he argued, is evidence that this obligation is not being met.
He further cited Article 36(2), which calls for a sound and healthy economy based on fair and realistic remuneration. A market distorted by collusion among powerful trade groups, he said, cannot be described as sound or healthy.
Instead, such practices amount to an erosion of the value of citizens’ earned income, as wages and salaries lose purchasing power in the face of artificially high prices. Ablorh noted that Ghana’s failure to address these issues is not due to the absence of proposed solutions.
For more than three decades, successive governments and Parliaments have delayed the passage of the Consumer Protection Bill and the Competition Bill, despite their repeated reappearance on the legislative agenda. These bills, he stressed, are not radical innovations but long-recognised instruments designed to give effect to constitutional principles.
Weak and Porous Regulatory Framework
In the absence of these laws, he argued, Ghana’s regulatory framework remains weak and porous. The Consumer Protection Agency, he said, is largely reduced to an advocacy role, lacking the authority to impose meaningful sanctions on deceptive or exploitative traders.
Passing the Consumer Protection Bill would, in his view, transform the agency into a true regulator with the power to impose substantial statutory fines and deter abuse.
The Competition Bill, he added, is equally crucial. He described it as the primary legal tool needed to dismantle cartels and address price-fixing in a systematic way. In his assessment, price-fixing should be understood not as an informal market practice but as an organised economic offence that distorts competition and harms consumers.
He also pointed out that effective competition law is essential for Ghana to meet its obligations under the African Continental Free Trade Area, where fair competition is a foundational principle. To illustrate what he considers an appropriate level of seriousness, Ablorh referred to international standards.
In jurisdictions such as the United States, price-fixing is treated as a criminal offence that can result in imprisonment, while in the European Union, companies found guilty face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turnover. Ghana’s continued tolerance of weak enforcement, he argued, sends the wrong signal to both domestic and international markets.
He acknowledged that the Competition Bill has faced persistent delays due to unresolved technical and political questions. A major challenge, he explained, has been disagreement over the design of a Competition Authority.
Successive governments have debated whether the body should operate under a ministry with investigative powers or be established as an autonomous institution with quasi-judicial authority to impose fines and conduct searches. Decisions on staffing, funding, and its relationship with the judiciary have repeatedly been postponed.
Another difficulty, Ablorh noted, lies in clearly defining what constitutes abuse of dominance within Ghana’s unique market structures. He pointed to the influence of trade associations and powerful market actors, arguing that the law must be carefully drafted to address opaque practices without infringing constitutional rights.
A Reset of Fundamental Overhaul
Poor drafting, he warned, could render the law vulnerable to legal challenges and weaken its effectiveness. Situating his argument within the broader political context, Ablorh refers to the National Democratic Congress’s “RESET” Agenda, which promises a fundamental overhaul of governance and economic management.
He argued that such a reset cannot succeed if macroeconomic gains are neutralised by unchecked exploitation at the microeconomic level. In his view, genuine reform requires a shift from broad policy rhetoric to firm enforcement where it matters most to citizens: the cost of everyday goods.
He called on the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry to move beyond press statements and appeals to market conscience, urging it to lay the Competition Bill before Parliament as an urgent priority with a clear institutional framework. He also advocated measures such as mandatory pricing transparency for major importers to address persistent justifications for high prices.
To Parliament, Ablorh delivered a direct challenge, insisting that continued delay is no longer defensible as policy debate. He argued that lawmakers must demonstrate their commitment to representation by passing both bills without further postponement.
Ultimately, he warned, while citizens may not engage with technical discussions of fiscal consolidation, they experience policy outcomes through the price of basic food. Failure to protect consumers, he suggests, will have political consequences.
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