According to TAGG, closing their shops will not affect the exchange rate but will rather spell doom for their already struggling businesses as foreign competitors are already stifling the local industry.
“We would like to stress again that members of TAGG and the general trading public of Ghana should not close their shops but should carry on with their daily business activities so as not to give an undue advantage to the multinational malls in Ghana because of our protest.”
Addressing a Press Conference in Accra, NANA POKU, General Secretary of TAGG, mentioned that in these challenging times, traders must come together to mount pressure on the government to heed their cries in a reasonable and sustainable manner so that their businesses and sources of income are not lost in the process.
He averred that trading in Ghana has become like “Russian Roulette, dangerous and unpredictable due to the harsh economic climate in the country today.”
However, he noted that TAGG leadership empathizes strongly with their members as they, themselves are traders and as such are facing these challenges on a personal level.
“The executives of TAGG in a bid to alleviate the pains of its members have held several meetings with the leadership and administrators of the current government to put our problems to them directly and to demand answers to the dire challenges we are currently facing as traders. But after several meetings, we have learnt with the utmost regret that the managers of the country’s economy seem to have no solutions to the rapid depreciation of the cedi and the high costs of doing business in the country.”
He assured members that they are unrelenting in their bid to force the managers of the country to find sustainable solutions to the current financial crisis but, “in the meantime, we will like to urge our members to keep their shops open.”
Giving cogent reasons for their appeal to members, Nana Poku indicated that “Although closing our shops may seem to be the right way to protest this unbearable economic crisis it will only worsen our problems as traders in the long term. We still have to feed our children and bear all our responsibilities in spite of the hardship. Currently, even with our shops open, we are unable to do so effectively, so what then happens when we close our shops?”
“The interest on our loans will keep piling up, our children’s fees will remain unpaid and we shall lose the very few customers we have been trying to maintain.”
He added: “Fellow traders, we are by this press conference strongly urging you to keep your shops open to keep body and soul together for the meantime while we fight for your welfare. Let us salvage what we can to save the dying embers of our businesses so that the flames our enterprises shall once again burn bright.”
On his part, the National Chairman of TAGG, Kwadwo Amoateng believes the protest must continue and urged their members to sustain the protests by wearing Red Arm Bands, Black or Red Attires and by putting Red Banners, in front of their shops starting from Tuesday, 18th October 2022 rather than closing our shops and hit on the street.
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“In the face of growing agitation, we, the leadership of TAGG, call on the IGP and the Ghana Police Service to protect traders who want to open their shops from unruly group who may want to use force to prevent them from doing so,” he emphasised.
