The Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) has suspended its intended action to close all shops from Monday, August 29.
The action, announced on Monday, August 22, was to protest the high cost in doing business.
But a meeting between GUTA’s leadership as well as other members of the trading community and the National Security and ministries of Finance and Trade and Industry has talked the traders out of embarking on the action.
There was another meeting too with members of the Council of State.
After the meetings, a roadmap was agreed upon.
As part of the roadmap, GUTA accepted a suspension of the “intended closure of shops in Accra on Monday, 29th August, 2022”.
“A joint committee made up of ten members of the trading community and eight members from the Council of State has been set up under the chairmanship of a Council of State Member, Hon, Paa Kofi Ansong, to look into all the issues raised by GUTA in the meeeting,” a press statement issued by GUTA on Friday, August 26 said.
The traders have, however, been asked to continue to fly red flags in front of their shops “until solutions are found”.
On Wednesday, August 24, the Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) questioned the decision by GUTA, claiming it was rather going to give undue advantage to foreign retail shops.
“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.”