GNCCI Lauds Bank Of Ghana

The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has commended the Central Bank for reducing its monetary policy rate by 200 basis points to 18 percent.

According to the chamber, the move by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) would improve the country's economy and boost private sector growth.

The chamber also praised government for helping to reduce interest rates, electricity tariffs, suspending import VAT and the 'fumigation levy, all geared towards facilitating improvements in economy.

Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso, President of the GNCCI, made this known on Thursday in Accra.

Indicating that Ghana has the highest bank lending rates in Africa at 35.5 percent, which compels businesses to access short-term credit at higher interests, he said the private sector is concerned about the dragging effect of the reduction on interest rates in the banking sector.

“We cannot continue to undermine the competitiveness of these businesses and erode their profits with high interest rates,” he stated, adding that the coming into effect of the Ghana Reference rate in April 2018 should help address the persistent high sticky interest rates.

Nana Dankawoso said the suspension of import Value Added Tax (VAT) on 64 commodity groups, including agricultural tractors, outboard motors, day-old chicks and mobile phones, among others and the fumigation levy would greatly help to reduce costs of doing business at the ports.

He appealed to government to diversify the economy in order to sustain the gains made in the country's trade balance, which recorded a surplus of $545.5 million in February 2018 and to address the perennial depreciation of the cedi against major currencies.

He added that GNCCI was undertaking a project in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Trade Policy Centre, following the signing of the African Union Free Trade Agreement to enhance intra- African Trade.

The project themed, “Enhancing the Capacity of the Business Community for Boosting Intra-African Trade” would seek to provide a platform for information sharing among stakeholders, promote the application of ECOWAS Common External Tariff and ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) through capacity building on the utilisation of the User's Guide and ETLS.