The economic recovery of Ghana is currently a chimera: a magnificent creature of state reports that dissolves into vapour the moment it touches the marketplace.
We celebrate the Cedi’s heroic 35% rally and the sharp decline in inflation, yet these hard-won national dividends are being systematically confiscated at the retail counter.
This is the tyranny of the asymmetric market, where the cost of living is governed by an unwritten, cruel law: Rocket Up, Feather Down.
When global crises strike, prices ascend instantaneously. Yet, when stability returns, those same prices stand defiant, “sticky” at the old crisis rates.
The average Ghanaian’s reality is a life of permanent economic siege, where the wealth created by national sacrifice is absorbed as excess profit by a privileged few.
The time for pathetic appeals to “market conscience” is over. We must abandon the rhetoric of polite moralising and confront the legal reality: price gouging is not a flaw in character; it is a crime against commerce, and Parliament’s inaction is a betrayal of the Constitution.
The foundation for protecting the consumer is not a political option; it is a constitutional imperative rooted in the 1992 Constitution. The failure of our political class to legislate against cartel behaviour is a profound dereliction of duty.
The State is commanded under Article 36(1) to manage the economy to secure the maximum welfare, freedom, and happiness of every person. When price-fixing is tolerated, the government has demonstrably failed its core mission.
Furthermore, Article 36(2) demands a “sound and healthy economy” based on “fair and realistic remuneration.” A market rigged by “trade associations” is neither sound nor healthy. It is a crime against the value of every citizen’s earned income.
For over three decades, the legislature has postponed the passage of the two crucial bills that would fulfill this mandate. The Bills gathering dust are not new proposals; they are the legislative keys to unlocking our constitutional promise.
Our regulatory structure is a sieve, protecting nothing. The path to economic justice requires arming the state with the tools of deterrence.
The Consumer Protection Bill (The Shield) must be enacted immediately to transform the Consumer Protection Agency from a merely pleading advocate into a regulator that can impose devastating statutory fines on deceptive traders. And the Competition Bill (The Sword) is the antitrust weapon needed to dismantle cartels.
Price-fixing is not an amiable custom; it is a systemic criminal operation. Passing this bill is essential to comply with Ghana’s AfCFTA treaty obligation.
In the US, price-fixing is a felony punishable by prison; in the EU, it invites fines of up to 10% of global turnover. Ghana’s law must reflect this global standard.
The reason the Competition Bill has become legislative quicksand for three decades is not a lack of necessity but persistent technical and political complexity at the drafting stage.
The primary hurdle lies in establishing an independent, technically competent competition authority. Successive governments have disagreed on the optimal institutional model. Should it be a purely investigatory body housed under the Ministry of Trade or an autonomous, quasi-judicial body with the power to impose fines and issue search warrants?
Creating this body requires difficult decisions on staffing, financing, and its relationship with the judiciary, issues Parliament consistently avoids.
Secondly, the bill must define, with absolute clarity, what constitutes “abuse of dominance” in the unique Ghanaian context, addressing the opaque operations of “market queens” and trade associations without violating constitutional rights to association. Poor drafting here risks turning a vital law into one that is easily challenged and perpetually overturned in court, hence the caution, or more accurately, the chronic inertia.
The NDC’s “RESET” campaign promised a fundamental overhaul, a chance to re-engineer the system to work for Ghanaians. But a national RESET cannot be achieved if the macroeconomic gains are instantly nullified by microeconomic banditry. To genuinely reset the economy, the state must first RESET its approach to governance.
This means shifting political will to the critical, granular level: using the full force of the law to fight corruption and inefficiency where it hurts the citizen most, in the market basket.
The mandate is clear: the Consumer Protection Bill (The Shield) and the Competition Bill (The Sword) are the legislative bedrock upon which any successful, broad-based RESET must be built.
Thus, the fight against price-fixing is the ultimate test of political resolve to enforce the rule of law against privileged economic sabotage. The state must pivot from its stance of appeasement to one of decisive enforcement. The time for soft words directed at the abstract “market” is over.
To the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness & Industry (MOTAI): Your role is to regulate, not to implore. You must abandon press conferences appealing to moral codes. Lay the Competition Bill NOW as an Urgent Presidential Directive, complete with a clear institutional model for the Competition Authority. And issue a directive mandating dual pricing transparency for major importers to abolish the “dollar excuse” for high prices.
To the Parliament of Ghana: You hold the title “Representative.” Prove it. Pass both the Consumer Protection Bill and the Competition Bill immediately. Continued delay is not a policy debate; it is a deliberate obstruction of consumer welfare.
The price of goods is a policy choice. The average Ghanaian does not eat “fiscal consolidation”; they live and die by the cost of kenkey. If you refuse to protect the value of the citizen’s money, the citizen will refuse to protect the security of your seat.
The time for pleading is over. The time for enforcing the Constitution is now.
By Raymond Ablorh
The writer is a Policy, Research, Government Relations, Media and Strategic Communication Consultant. [email protected]
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