Our economy is sinking so hard and we have been hit by hardship on every side. Every well-meaning Ghanaian knows that our economy needs serious fixing. This led a group known as Arise Ghana to embark on a two-day demonstration that took place on June 28, 2022, and June 29, 2022. The demonstration was to express displeasure about the dire economic hardship in the country. Leaders of the protest petitioned the government on Wednesday to implement measures to improve the state of economic challenges in the country.
According to the group, the degraded economy was a result of poor economic management by the government. They urged the authorities to be upbeat and revive the ill economy. A leader of the group, Mr. Bernard Monah said this in a petition presented to the Ministry of Finance after a protest march from the El-Wak Sports stadium. The Deputy Ministers of Finance, Mrs. Abena Osei Asare, and Mr. John Kumah were handed the petition. Parliament was also given a copy of the petition. Mr. Monah emphasized that the increase in goods and services was unbearable for Ghanaians and called on the government to adopt stringent measures to reduce the inflation rate. He also asked that the cedi depreciation which was making it difficult to do business and reducing imports be addressed. He craved the indulgence of all stakeholders to immediately find solutions to the issues to ameliorate the plight of business entities.
Mr. Monah also said that the increasing rate of unemployment in the country was a menace to national security and it needed to be corrected urgently. He mentioned that the government should dissolve the “Agyapa deal”, the e – levy policy, and remove all taxes on petroleum products as these were deepening the economic challenges of Ghanaians. To help lower the price of petroleum products, he admonished the authorities to resume operations at the Tema Oil Refinery. Is it not ironic that we have an oil refinery with a total tankage capacity of 2.6 million metric tonnes for crude oil, and both finished and semi-finished products, and a storage capacity for LPG of 9,000 metric tonnes, yet we pay so much for petroleum products when we are even able to export?
Mrs. Asare reported that to solve the problems “primarily” caused by COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war, the government had begun holding meetings with key stakeholders. This was in response to the petition that was presented to the Ministry of Finance. Again, must the government blame all our problems on COVID – 19 and the Russian – Ukrainian war? Prior to these events, can we say that we had a thriving economy? She added that the administration would continue to show its commitment to addressing public concerns. Can we trust her words?
Despite attempts by the police to stop the protestors over a disagreement about the use of an unapproved route on day one of the protest, day two ended successfully at the Ministry of Finance.