Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah — Minister of Trade and Industry

Clear market of fake products, employers tell govt

Yakubu Abdul-Jalil Business News Mar - 01 - 2016 , 08:48

The President of Ghana Employers Association (GEA), Mr Terence Darko, has appealed to the government to flush out of the markets traders who deal in counterfeit products.

That, he said, was necessary to protect the local industry from the threat of unpatriotic people. The president made the appeal at the association’s annual gathering in Accra last Thursday.

Mr Darko observed that apart from the issue of counterfeit products, employers were already faced with what he described as unpredictable and unstable macroeconomic environment.

He said prices of counterfeit goods were low and, therefore, local industries producing the originals of those products were not able to compete.

Mr Darko said stealing of intellectual property through counterfeiting and piracy was stifling innovation and creativity.

As a result, he said, the state was losing revenue because it was unable to collect taxes from collapsed industries, while many people were also losing jobs.

Mr Darko appealed to the government to equip the regulatory bodies with the requisite tools to strengthen their effort to combat counterfeit and illicit trade in the country.

He added that the current rate of inflation, which was about 19 per cent, had also affected the cost of borrowing as interest rate hovered around 30 per cent and beyond, and added that the situation was also making business budgeting, planning and focusing very difficult and by extension unpredictable.