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The Ghanaian trading, commercial, and industrial community has received a strong call from Hon. Kobina Tahir Hammond (MP), Minister of Trade and Industry, to reduce their prices and help make life a little easier for customers.
According to him, carrying out this action will be a component of their corporate social responsibility to the nation and its customers.
The Minister made the appeal at the 47th Annual General Meeting of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Accra. He also mentioned that the government would match the goodwill by creating an environment that is favorable to the growth of both their companies and the country.
In an interaction with parliamentary press corps Mr Hammond says ” I’m pleading with the traders to reduce their prices this Christmas, we have been receiving complains from consumers about steps taken to control price at the market and get worried, is not the mandate of Ministry of trade and industry to price commodities at the market but the traders themselves but traders should minimised the price to gain high profits for the benefit of Ghanaians” he said.
Hon K.T. Hammond recalled the recurrent theme in public discourse which centres on the excessive profit that some in the business community make. Whilst acknowledging the fact that he was neither unappreciative of the various cost and input factors of production, nor the effect of the dollarisation of the economy with its cascading effect on the prices of products, as well as the plaintive cries about the taxes and levies paid to Government, the Minister wondered whether these are the all reasons why the cost of living in Ghana is so unacceptably high.
The Minister however, had no issues with any efforts to make decent profits, and called on the Chamber and its members not to harbour the erroneous belief that there is a radical ignorance in the people about what some term as “the abnormal or super-normal” profits some of them make. He recounted a recent story about some High Street shops and supermarkets in some jurisdictions which took a collective decision not to pass on to the already overstretched consumers extra cost which they would normally have had to pay. He said the enterprises decided to absorb the costs to help ease the burden of the consumer as their collective corporate social responsibility to the public.
Turning to the theme of the AGM, “Building Business Confidence in the Midst of Economic Challenges”, he noted that much of the economic soundness of yesteryears has been disrupted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, which have presented the world with the most significant set of challenges since World War II. He observed that on the back the two crises, coupled with other longer-term trends, the world faces pervasive challenges, which will likely slow growth and create significant difficulties for leaders around the globe for some time to come.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com/Nana Kwaku Boffah
