06 May 2025
Beginning this year, cedis was hovering around 16 cedis to a single dollar, started to hover around 15 cedis to a dollar in February to March, and then came down to 14 cedis to one dollar from March through to April and then finally has come down again to around 13 cedis to one dollar in the beginning of May. According to reports by 3news.com, an economist and lecturer based at Ghana Communication Technology University College, Dr. Thomas Appiah has stated that the cedi to dollar appreciation is due to Prez Donald Trump's tariff war with other countries. According to the report, the cedi would continue to appreciate should the tariff war continue to happen.
However, people have started expressing their concerns about whether this cedi appreciation would cause inflation to decrease or not, with most people arguing that inflation must drop since cedi has gained value to dollar.
In fact, I share the same sentiment with these Ghanaians. One thing that is noticeable over the years is that, when cedi depreciate to dollar, then there is a swift tendency among transport operators and authorities to increase tranport fares immediately. Also, those doing business tend to immediately increase the price of goods and services without a single hesitation about the effects this action would have on the ordinary customer and the nation at large.
However, when the cedi appreciate, these business people and transport authorities with their operators hesitate before deciding to decrease prices on goods and services as well as decrease transport fare. These people aforementioned increase fares anyhow and hide under the excuse that other factors come to play when they have to decrease fares, such as the cost of certain materials for production. But then, these same people increase price upon cedi depreciation without giving a single excuse. Why don't you use the same logic you use to increases the prices of goods and services to decrease the prices when there is appreciation of the cedi? Or the law of supply and demand no longer works in the country?
The truth is that these business people and transport operators benefit from the profit they get when cost increase. They would then have to increase the price to maintain the mark up price on the product, but then when there is a reduction of cost, they maintain prices to take advantage of the profit they get from the amount on the cost by which the whole cost of the production is reduced.
To increase prices on goods and services upon currency depreciation but refusing to reduce those prices upon currency appreciation is tantamount to committing legal business fraud, a fraud that seems to be legal in the eyes of gullible people unsuspecting of this type of fraud. It is time we change our mindset regarding the way we conduct our own affairs in the country. If necessary, price regulatory measures should be put in place to check what seems to be an illegal price increases on goods and services.