General News of Tuesday, 25 October 2022

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Akufo-Addo meets AGI, banks, GPRTU, others over economic challenges

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo is scheduled to meet, the Association of Banks, AGI, GPRTU and the members of the Council of State to discuss the way forward for the economic challenges confronting the country on Tuesday. He is set to meet first with the Association of Ghana Industries and to follow it immediately with the Association of Banks. He will then meet with members of the Council of State before closing the day with a meeting with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union. The meetings will primarily focus on the cause of the current economic challenges and to suggestions on how to deal with the challenges. The economy has in the past few months seen a decline in progress as food inflation has risen to 37.80% from the 13.70% in January. This gave rise to various worker unions demanding for the payment of a Cost of Living Allowance of 20% but after negotiations with the government, a 15% COLA was agreed upon. *RISING FOOD PRICES* The increment in food inflation has seen a sharp rise in the cost of food items on the market raising concerns from foodstuff vendors. The vendors are demanding drastic action from the government to deal with suppliers who they accuse of deliberately inflating prices. GOVERNMENT ASSURANCE The heightened anger from the citizenry has caused the government to constantly assure the people of efforts being made to deal with the issue. In his recently concluded tour of the Eastern Region, President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo assured the people of the government’s efforts at ensuring there is a respite for Ghanaians. The economic management team led by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are said to have commenced a series of meetings to find solutions to the challenges. The meetings will see the EMT also working with the Bank of Ghana to find a way to deal with the depreciation of the Cedi. CABINET MEETINGS President Nana Akufo-Addo is also expected to go into a crunch cabinet meeting on Thursday to fine-tune solutions to the current economic challenges.