Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Adopt pragmatic measures, not directives, to stop price hikes!!

Prices of goods and services keep skyrocketing, and the situation appears out of hand in that price changes occur at any time.

There is a story of a market survey done by the Ghanaian Times published today, and it should not surprise anyone if the figures quoted by the paper go wrong this morning.

Various factors influence changes in the prices of goods and services, and all these more or less depend on the economic conditions of the country.

Such conditions may include mismanagement by the government, in which wrong decisions that undermine normal life can be taken.

This is to say that the government cannot escape blame for the current state of economic affairs in the country if a real on-the-ground analysis is done.

In the Ghanaian Times market survey story, Dr. Nyaaba Charles, an agriculture expert and Chief Executive Officer of Akuafo Nketewa Company, the Business Unit of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, says the government has removed subsidies on farm imports such as tractors, agricultural machinery, spare parts, and fertiliser.

Naturally, this situation is an instance that would cause an increase in the production of food.

Importers would pay more for those items, and they would transfer the price difference to the farmers who buy from them, and they in turn would transfer the change in prices to consumers.

If what Dr. Nyaaba is saying is actually what she obtains, then the question is, what informed this decision?

Did the government officials who took that decision analyse the ramifications?

It is true that other factors like the profit motive of businesses and individual traders can influence price hikes, but it is believed that the government can and has to do something by way of subsidy, removal of certain taxes, engagements with the business community, and fulfillment of agreements reached at such engagements.

At the moment, it appears things are not as expected, and so the members of the business community have taken a position that can keep them in operation.

Quite recently, transport operators insisted they were going to increase fares regardless of the pleading from officialdom to them to shelve that decision.

What happened in the end?

We are also aware that just last week, the Minister for Trade and Industry, K. T. Hammond, directed the Cement Manufacturing Development Committee to instruct manufacturing companies to immediately reverse the recent increases in cement prices.

The Minister further requested the publication of the retail prices of cement by all manufacturers to help stop the continuous, arbitrary increases in cement prices.

The public is yet to see what would become of this directive if the prices of the inputs for the production of cement kept rising.

The Ghanaian Times thinks that the directives from the government to businesses in the country would remain charade because of the dollarization of the Ghanaian economy.

If businesspeople and industries have to import most of their inputs for production and the dollar keeps appreciating against the cedi and nothing economically prudent is done except blaming COVID-19 and the Rus­sian-Ukraine war, the business community would continue to defy directives that would bring their operations to a grind.

In the end, consumers are the victims, as their incomes remain static, but they must make ends meet.

The government must intervene with pragmatic actions, not directives that infuriate the business community.