Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has reemphasize on his promise to optimize the business amiability of ports by enacting fixed exchange rates, focused on alleviating forex pressure faced by traders.
In a meeting with the Pharmaceutical Society and other Pharma Groups, the Dr. Bawumia stressed on the need for businesses, including those in the pharmacy industry, to encourage a competitive advantage to strengthen economic growth. He noted that this initiative would also reduce the chance of losing port traffic to neighboring countries.
We’re going to change the duty structure and go into more of a flat specific duty. If you have a 40-footer container, you know how much you are paying in cedis. So, you take the exchange rate out of the matter and deal with it. We are also going to make sure that our duties in ports by policy cannot be higher than in Lome, which is our competitor. And right now, there’s a lot of diversion of containers to Lome because ours are higher.
Dr. Kow Donkor, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, also professed optimism that the distressed raised by the society members would be addressed, providing consolation to its members.
We know the oil industry; the Bank of Ghana makes available the US dollars for their imports, pharmaceutical industry and medicines are also special items. When you have a shortage of medicines, that becomes a national security issue. If the central bank is going to make funding available at a special rate for the pharmaceutical importers and manufacturers, it will also go a long way to stabilize the prices.
