Ghanaians are expected to be ready to pay for a litre of petroleum products. The increases have been necessitated by what has been described as the free fall of the cedi. The total increment could amount to 5.5 percent of the current price.
Sampson Addae, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Ghana said this when he spoke to Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show today, Tuesday, August 16, 2022.
It would be recalled that in the first pricing window of August, the prices of petroleum products went down between 3 to 6 percent. Before that, petroleum products went down by between 2 to 4 percent.
While prices of barrels of crude on the international market have remained relatively stable, Ghanaians would pay more for fuel because of the country’s depreciating cedi.
“The international prices have still not gone up. This increment is due to the fall of the cedi. The importers or the BDCs are complaining that they have to spend a lot to import fuel. This cost is something that is affecting their business. They will also have to adjust themselves to be able to be competitive on the market.”
“They are willing to give us the 5.5 percent increment for us to pay so that they can stay afloat in their business and also in the next pricing window, they will have the resources to go there and get us the goods.”
“Because the cedi keeps depreciating, they keep adjusting their prices so that when they go, it happens that the cedi has depreciated again, they will still be in business,” he said.
Until government finds a lasting solution to the free-falling cedi, Ghanaians would continue to fork out more money for fuel. This is according to Mr. Addae.
Mr. Addae’s position is similar to that of the MP for the Bongo Constituency, Edward Bawa.
Mr. Bawa has attributed the increase in fuel prices to the poor performance of the Cedi against the dollar.
“The major challenge now is the stability of the cedi,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, March 19.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
