Spare parts dealers in the country have rejected calls for a cut down in the importation of their goods.
The demands for more dollars and other major trading currencies by importers have been identified as pressures likely to push the cedi into a depreciating mode again in 2016.
Some captains of industry and economists have called on government to cut down on the country’s high level of imports to help stabilize the cedi and invest in the local manufacturing sector.
But speaking to Citi Business News, the Chairman of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, Joseph Paddy maintained, manufacturing companies are now even going into importing since manufacturing in Ghana has become unprofitable.
“We are all asking for a local content that we should purchase made in Ghana goods but we can’t also make it a wholesale thing because there are certain things we cannot do away with, even developed countries do import but what kind of importation are we looking at? Manufacturing is not attractive because of high interest rates and utility prices which make Ghanaian manufacturers unable to compete with other businesses elsewhere,” he stated.
“Government should have a deliberate policy to find a solution to these issues and not put the blame on the private sector businesses to stop importing,” Joseph Paddy added.
