Local businesses are laying off workers due to the harsh economic conditions – Tsonam Akpeloo
Greater Accra Regional President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Mr Tsonam Akpeloo has revealed that AGI members are reeling under the harsh economic situation in the country and laying off workers.
Recounting the ordeal they go through during a discussion on TV3 on 10th October 2022, Mr Akpeloo said “times are really and extremely worrying for our members. We realize that we are not able to address the issue and it is getting worse, not better”.
“Some of the members who produce locally especially will have to close down and those who import raw materials produced at a high cost and cannot pass down the full cost to their customers and are stuck in the middle and they lay off workers as they are losing about 50% of the cost of production,’’ he said
He added that “the members complain that if nothing is done about it they will shut down their companies”.
Mr Akpeloo on what government can do to salvage the situation said “the foundation of the problem is we need to produce locally as 70% of our goods are imported. We need to cut down on that and also the Bank of Ghana needs to check the policy rate though they want to tackle inflation, it also makes the cost of borrowing very high. Thirdly, there is the need for government to at least help some local industries by giving them stimulus package to save the situation if we are not able to do this a lot of our industries will collapse”.
