Businesses want government to expedite action in solving the country’s worsening power challenges as they fear of its adverse impact on their operations.
The reduction in power generation in addition to challenges impeding the supply of crude, have culminated in power cuts which authorities have declined to declare as load shedding.
The Acting Power Minister, Seth Terkper is also yet to heed to calls for a load shedding timetable to guide decision of consumers of electricity.
Some business owners also tell Citi Business News the development is causing huge financial losses to their businesses.
The President of GUTA, Barima Dr. Ofori Ameyaw, has also admonished government to solve the crises immediately to avoid further collapse of industries.
“We have already served caution that due to this energy crisis a lot of businesses and investments have been relocated to neighboring Cote D’lvoire, Togo, Burkina Faso and other places. After all, business is to make profit so if the business owners are suffering, automatically, they would have to close down shops…in our situation, while the prices of crude is going down on the world market, our situation is a different ball game altogether,” he lamented.
Barima Dr. Ofori Ameyaw further emphasized that government comes out with the truth surrounding the rampant power outage to save businesses from collapse.
“Transparency should be the order of the day. If there is a problem at all, we as corporate Ghana should be informed. But if you decide that there is no problem while there is a huge one, then it means that you are not trying to tell the truth to Ghanaians which is not the best.”
President Mahama has earlier asserted that the country has not returned to the load shedding regime despite acknowledging challenges with power supply in the country.
At the time, the President attributed the situation to challenges in getting crude to power some of the country’s thermal plants.
GUTA wants policy rate reduced
Meanwhile GUTA has expressed dissatisfaction at the Bank of Ghana’s decision to maintain the policy rate at 26%.
GUTA says the rate is unfavorable to businesses as the cost of business is still high.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana on Monday announced that it has kept the policy rate unchanged for the fourth consecutive time.
The MPC cited the decline in inflation, increase in prices of petroleum products with its rippling effect on the price of utility and food items.
But reacting to the development, President of GUTA, Barima Dr. Ofori Ameyaw I stressed that the not only are businesses going to be affected, but individual purchasing powers will be reduced which will eventually clamp down on production.
“If the Bank of Ghana says economic indicators have stabilized at that point, we were thinking that at least if for nothing at all, the policy rate could have dropped to about even 20%. So we are not comfortable at the way those indicators are; when we even talk of inflation, it should have been at a single digit by now,” he stated.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
