ACCRA, Oct 19 (Reuters) – The streets in the normally busy heart of Accra’s central business district were quiet on Wednesday as traders in the Ghanaian capital shut down shops to protest deteriorating economic conditions.
The Ghanaian cedi fell to a fresh low of 12.3 against the dollar on Wednesday, down from 10.5 last week, as inflation surges despite repeated central bank hikes.
The Ghanaian government is in the process of negotiating an aid package with the International Monetary Fund, but some traders say the aid isn’t coming fast enough.
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“Because of this dollar situation, we closed the shop. Day by day the dollar is going up now. It’s too much for us,” said Francis Fynn, 53, who has run his family’s small stationery business for two decades.
Because of the deteriorating exchange rate, he can’t afford to buy books and paper from his suppliers, he said.
“We have decided to close the shops hoping to sit down with the government so we can negotiate things.”
People walk in front of closed shops as vendors close their shops in protest of Ghana’s deteriorating economic conditions in Accra, Ghana October 19, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
A government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fynn is a member of the Ghana Union of Traders Association, which asked all of its members in Accra to suspend activities Wednesday through Monday in protest.
At a normally crowded downtown street market, about half to two-thirds of shops were closed, while some activity continued.
Bookseller Alfred Kobina Otsiwah, who is not a member of the union, said his business was also suffering, but he didn’t see a strike as a solution.
“If we close our shops by Monday, the government will not simply cut the dollar because of this. Until then, the price will probably even rise. he said, showing his wares in the small corner of a downtown balcony.
“I don’t see closing the shop as food on my table.”
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Reporting by Francis Kokoroko and Cooper Inveen; writing from Nellie Peyton; Edited by Sandra Painter
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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