President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has affirmed that traders in the country are not responsible for the hikes in food prices.

According to him, the association and traders at large are equally bearing the brunt of the factors impacting the sporadic changes in prices of products. He revealed that it is by virtue of the hardships traders are enduring GUTA deems it necessary to consent to the closure of shops in Accra.

Dr Obeng noted that the primary aim of the closure of shops is for government to have a “sense of urgency” with what is happening and address the challenges. Additionally, he highlighted that the protest is to register the dissatisfaction within the trading community and also debunk some assertions on pricing by traders.

“We made a statement to the effect that our capitals are being eroded…Then, we are communicating to our consumers that we are not the cause of the price hikes in the country, we want to take ourselves from that. Because the business that we do, we do not do it in isolation, we do it with our consumers. We are also trying to achieve a purpose to send a signal to our suppliers who give us credit that, we are not being able to settle our indebtedness to them in time as we normally do because we have a peculiar problem as a nation.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Impact of closure of shops

Assessing the first day of traders closing shops in Accra, Dr Obeng stated that considering the “economic hardship” in the country, a trader not opening his shop for business only proves the severity of his plight. He explained that the mass number of people who closed down their shops equally reverberates “how serious people are with the issues that are going on”.

“It is not any imposition from the leadership of GUTA, they themselves told us that they want to show to government that we are indeed in serious trouble and that’s what they are doing. They gave themselves the timeline and so, whatever you saw is as a result of the resolve that the people, our members themselves have…”
Dr Joseph Obeng

The GUTA President noted that although the closure of shops was intended for every shops in Accra, he understands that there will be some few non-compliant persons who will deviate from the directive. Nonetheless, he stated that the economic meltdown will be one of the reasons for such persons to open shops.

Dr Obeng emphasized that despite some stakeholders being averse to the decision by traders, it stands to reason that not everybody will be receptive to the idea.

“… Those who have closed their shop say that they have to make a firm decision to communicate to the government. Because if you don’t let them know how serious and the extent of our suffering by doing something that will let them feel the pinch, then we will be joking. Those who also indicate that the times are very hard to the extent that I cannot even afford to stay close… everybody has his own right. But this thing is coming from the people themselves and their resolve to make sure that the problem is solved.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Dr Obeng noted that the protest is for the good of not only traders but for the consuming public and Ghanaians at large. He explained that the move is not a selfish one but is largely motivated by the “hard times”.