Prices of food items in the Greater Accra region continue to increase drastically a few weeks after the Christmas festivities.

Traders and members of the general public have expressed concern about the continuous increase in the prices of major staples.

Prices of maize, rice, yam, gari, beans, cooking oils, onions, plantain and cassava, among others, have shot up astronomically, negatively affecting consumers.

CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE visited the Agbogbloshie market yesterday to access the situation and most traders complained bitterly about the astronomical prices.

Margaret Quartey, a maize seller, explained that a bag of maize which used to sell between GH¢700 and GH¢800 just before Christmas, was currently selling between GH¢140 and GH¢180.

According to her, this is the first time that the price of maize had shot up by such unreasonable margin since she started her trade about 28 years ago.

“Previously, maize was the cheapest cereal in the country. A lot of traders from our neighboring countries trooped here to purchase some of our stocks. It is shocking that things have changed within the twinkle of an eye.”

She said the development could be attributed to the recent increment in fuel prices.

“Transportation costs from Agbogbloshie to the villages where these are produced have increased. We go as far as Sunyani, Yenchi, Kintampo and Kumasi to buy these maize. The problem is so worrying that at times you just feel like staying at home,” she noted.

She hinted that the inability of the rains to set in this year as expected had caused panic among farmers, hence their refusal to sell their maize.

“They want to sell their stocks when the commodity is in sharp demand. When we started this business we were buying a full bag of maize between GH¢30 and GH¢50 but now one needs to have additional money in order to be able to do this business.”

According to her, an ‘olonka’ of maize is now selling between GH¢3 and GH¢3.5 instead of GH¢1.5 and GH¢ 1.8 previously.

“If nothing is done about the fuel prices and the subsequent increase in the prices of staples, most traders would be forced to forgo their businesses and resort to other businesses at home since they would not find the additional capital.

At the main market, an ‘olonka’ of gari is now selling at between GH¢2.8 and GH¢3.8 based on nice colours and taste.

A bag of rice is also selling between GH¢73 and GH¢75 instead of between GH¢64 and GH¢65 previously depending on the various brands.

Four tubers of yam are now selling between GH¢12 and GH¢15. A 25-litre of Obaapa cooking oil is currently selling at GH¢69 instead of GH¢63 previously.

The prices of tomatoes, pepper, onions and okro and salted fish have also increased.

Source: Daily Guide

The National Lottery Authority (NLA) says the authority is losing an average of GH¢100 million annually to individuals and institutions who engage in illegal lottery.

Such a loss, according to the authority is consequently limiting its annual revenue generation rate to the state. The NLA has thus reaffirmed its commitment to fighting the menace through intermittent raids and court injunctions to enable it rake in more revenues for the state.

The Chief Operating Officer of NLA, Mr George Addo-Yobo, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of a press conference organised by the authority “to provide clearity on what a recent court decision on a case of illegal lottery brought against tiGO by the authority does and does not mean. ”

Mr Addo-Yobo said “NLA projections show that the state, through the authority, is losing about GH¢100 million to the activities of institutions and individuals who engage in various kinds of illegal lottery without due course to the NLA. ”

He explained that the law that established the NLA, the National Lotto Act 2006, Act 722, outlawed individuals and institutions from engaging in banker to banker activities, and marketing or consumer promotions that were lottery in nature but disguised as promotions.

That notwithstanding, Mr Addo-Yobo said some institutions and individuals “are still engaging in these activities and that is having a toll on NLA’s finances and our revenue generations to the state in particular. ”

The NLA has since 2011 instituted a series of court cases against some corporate institutions which were engaging in illegal lottery but shrouded in promotions.

In one of such cases, the NLA succeeded in securing an injunction against Milicom Ghana, operators of tiGO, from carrying out its tiGO House Promotion, arguing that the activity was a lottery but disguised as a consumer and marketing promotion.

An Accra based court subsequently declined jurisdiction to determine the illegality or otherwise of the matter but said “the NLA lacks the capacity to bring civil mandatory enforcement proceedings under Act 722 against tiGO. ”

While hinting that the NLA was looking at appealing the said judgment, Mr Kojo Andah, Director-General of the NLA said “the judgement has not changed in anyway the mandate of the NLA as enshrined in the National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722). ”

At the moment, Mr Andah said the authority would collaborate with the police and the attorney-general in the arrest and prosecution of individuals and institutions engaging in illegal lottery to the detriment of the authority.

The NLA generated GH¢10. 5 million in 2011 as against the GH¢135million realised in 2010.

It’s chief operating officer attributed the dip in the 2011 revenue of the authority “to the massive investments that we undertook last year as part of efforts to strengthen the operations of the company.

“We procured about 10,000 lottery point of sale terminals for our lotto vendors, deplored a software connectivity that will automates our operations very soon including having to undertake other projects and all these ate into our reserves for the year,” he added.

In 2012, Mr Addo-Yobo said the authority would consider increasing its revenue generations by 15 per cent from the current GH¢10. 5 million through the implementation of modern lotto strategies, fighting revenue leakages through illegal lotto operations and diversifying its activities to include mobile lottering.

Source: Daily Graphic

The Progressive People’s Party, a yet to be licensed political party, has reviewed the poor performance of the Ghana cedi against its foreign trading partners. While the public and the media have been fixed on the Woyome trillion cedi payment and the Hon. Martin Amidu’s charge of corruption against NDC members, the economy has been experiencing significant threat.

From the last quarter of 2011 through to the opening weeks of 2012, the local currency, the Ghana cedi has experienced sharp depreciation to the US Dollar, Pound and Euro affecting investor and business confidence in the country.

Traders, corporate Ghana and Ghanaians are lamenting the effects of the depreciating cedi against other trading currencies as their purchasing power has been drastically reduced. Indeed, business people have lost money, big money. The Bank of Ghana has recognised this threat to the economy and has pumped several millions of US dollars into the system. But, the Ghana cedi is still losing value. Indeed, we find it rather strange that our forex reserves during 2011 fell despite oil export revenue coming on stream, a record cocoa harvest and an all time high price for Gold, from 3.8 months of import cover ($4.77bn) in January to 3.5 months ($4.59bn) in August.

The Cedi’s performance during the 2011 financial year could be described as disappointing after the local currency failed to live up to its previous year’s 1.69% appreciation. We had known all along that starving the nation of funds, hoarding dollars at the Central Bank and freezing public sector employment could not lead to long term gain. Furthermore, this clearly demonstrates the Mills-Mahama NDC Administration’s inability to balance monetary policy and fiscal discipline. It is also clear the NDC Administration’s failure to utilize efficiently loans and grants from foreign donors.

The PPP wishes to sound a very loud alarm bell to all Ghanaians to be wide awake and pay attention to what is happening to the economy and not be taken in by all the noise on the political front. We should remember that it is when President Mills was Chairman of the Economic Management team with his Vice President as a Member and Dr. Duffour as the Governor of the Central Bank that the Ghanaian economy suffered greatly and collapsed under the heavy weight of high inflation and a cedi that lost value by the minute.

Consistent with the PPP’s good economic management principles, we will bring fiscal discipline into the system and at the same time support our indigenous businesses to ensure that we keep money in our own banking system to be used to support our private sector, when we get the mandate to govern the country in the 2012 elections.

We will also bring the economy back home by using government’s purchasing power to ensure that our local contractors, consultants and industries gain a market at home, will reduce pressure on the Ghana cedi while creating jobs for our men and women. Clearly, Ghana needs the progressive, pragmatic approach of the PPP to keep the value of the cedi and restore human values.

Source: Progressive People’s Party