TAGG dismisses GUTA’s call to close their shops, says it is senseless

Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) is calling on its members to keep their shops open on Monday, August 29 despite calls by the Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) to shut shops.

GUTA on Monday, August 22 asked all traders to close shops, starting Monday, August 29 to register their displeasure at the currently high cost of doing business in the country.

GUTA’s President Dr Joseph Obeng further asked members to hoist red flags on their shops as they scale up pressure on government to address their concerns.

Dr Obeng urged government to give them a listening ear as they have solutions to the current crisis.

But speaking on TV3‘s Midday Live on Wednesday, August 24, Secretary of TAGG Nana Opoku insisted closing shops is not the way to go as that will rather worsen the plight of traders.

“We have so many ways of actually attracting government’s attention in addressing this situation,” he said.

“Closing shops is not the issue. Some of our traders are on loans and if you are keeping our members to close shops, it doesn’t make sense.”

He said the cause of the sharp fall of the Cedi as compared to the Dollar is a systemic problem and not the fault of traders.

He said the action by GUTA will rather give undue advantage to foreign retail shops to rake in profit off Ghanaians while local traders suffer.

“We have grown to the level we don’t need to close shops.”

Source: 3news.com|Ghana