To grow the local economy and industry the government must lead the way by ensuring it prioritizes sourcing from local businesses and institutes policies to check foreign competition for such entities.
Players in the manufacturing sector believe these parameters are critical amidst the present economic turmoil and will improve the country’s fortunes.
Elisabeth Owusu Gyebi the Public Relations Officer for Interplast limited further highlighted the struggle manufacturers in the country are currently battling due to the prevailing economic challenges.
She stated that “we are spending more money to get the same raw materials that we were getting a couple of months ago and this has to be carried on to the consumer because we have tried our best to absorb these extra expenses that came.”
She added that she believes the government’s engagement with local industries is critical to turning the situation around.
“Government need to take the bold step by buying made in Ghana products themselves for all these projects they get themselves into.”
Sherif Abdellah Sherif is the assistant marketing manager at Golden Africa Ghana, which is into manufacturing and export of soap, he believes the government must also prioritise providing businesses like his with incentives over foreign competition.
“A lot of tough competition comes from imported goods and because of that many manufacturing firms cannot sustain locally due to a lot of cutthroat competition in the market.”
“So if we can prioritise the people who are manufacturing locally with local resources then I think that can give some space for the industry.”
At a time when inflation is at an all-time high, utility tariffs are up and the cost of fuel in the country keeps hiking, manufacturers are amongst the worst affected.
The cedi has significantly depreciated by about 40 per cent this year and traded at some point last month at about GHS16 to the dollar.
The fluctuations of the currency pose a major challenge for industries that have a hard time figuring out how to price their products.
This led to some locally made commodities like oil seeing their prices on the market more than double.
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