President of Ghana Union of Traders Association(GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has said that COVID-19 has made it difficult for members to secure external funds.

Speaking to GhanaWeb, Dr Obeng stated that foreign suppliers who serve as a source of credit for GUTA members were not forthcoming.

“Our source of credit or borrowing that we were getting from our foreign suppliers were also curtailed because they were also challenged.”

He bemoaned the high cost of local credit, as he said: "accessing credit is not very difficult but the cost of it is extremely high and that is what our main problem has been."

The GUTA boss further indicated that the various movement restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the virus made it difficult for GUTA members to have adequate goods for their business operations.

"This year, our way of doing business has changed completely. Ordering patterns have also been affected. Because our suppliers were also challenged due to the lockdown.

This exposed us because we had to look within, locally to buy our goods to sustain ourselves. This way is unfortunate because Ghana can only meet 10 percent of its import requirement," he told GhanaWeb.

Dr Obeng also charged stakeholders to put measures in place in boosting local production to address the country's import deficit.

"We have to look within and see how we can produce locally in order to sustain our economy in such challenging times.”