Bawumia’s import duty cuts will turn Ghana into a ‘refuse dump’ – Odike

Businessman cum politician, Akwasi Addai Odike has said he is displeased by the reduction of some 50% and 30% on the benchmark values of general and vehicle imports respectively, because the intervention, in his estimation would only make Ghana a dumping place for finished goods.

He said, it would have been better to restrict the import duty cuts to raw materials for the manufacturing industries, which would have in turn translated to exports in order to attract the needed foreign exchange to stabilize the Ghana cedi.

Speaking with Kwame Tanko on Angel FM on Tuesday Monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP) said the intervention by the government would be short-lived since importers would need more dollars to bring in their goods, which would cause the cedi to depreciate again in no time.

He said the only way to strengthen the economy is for the government to focus on the manufacturing industry by prioritizing the import of raw materials and making them duty-free if possible, in order to encourage manufacturers to produce more for exports.

“If government had slashed the duties on the import of raw materials for the making of shoes, like leather, glue and other accessories, Ghana would have made so much money exporting shoes to neighboring Burkina Faso and Togo”.

According to him, the way to increase import volumes at the ports was not to cut import duties on finished goods but to prioritize the import of raw materials to strengthen the manufacturing industry.