Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has called on the government to prioritise strengthening the Cedi to facilitate a decrease in the prices of petroleum products.
In recent weeks, petroleum product prices have experienced a significant decline, exacerbated by the reinstatement of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy.
Duncan Amoah, Executive Secretary of COPEC, highlighted on The Big Issue on Citi FM and Citi TV that the surge in prices can be attributed to the depreciation of the currency.
He emphasised the importance of governmental strategies aimed at bolstering the Cedi’s value.
“What we can do as a country at this point is really to strategize on your currency and do whatever magic that has been done because before August 2022, prices of petroleum products did hike and at a point, diesel and petrol were crossing GH¢21 and for some reasons, we were able to cool those two off.
“The Cedi had also depreciated to almost GH¢17 exchange to a dollar, and the Bank of Ghana for whatever magic, was able to reverse the depreciation back to GH¢12 and so if you have any of those things down your sleeve, there could be no better time to apply that kind of solution than at this point when prices are simply going up daily.
“At this point, taxes cannot be taken, give or take; we cannot influence Israel on Iran; we cannot influence Ukraine from bombing Russian refineries. What we can do at this point is ensure that your Cedi is not doing too badly, as we have seen in the past few weeks.
“Once that happens, you are simply hanging yourself in the face of global market price trends and throwing your hands in despair.”