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Businessman, Kennedy Agyapong, has appealed to commercial banks operating in the country to reduce their interest rates in order to help stimulate economic activity and business.

According to him, these interest rates have made it in near impossible for local business owners to compete with foreign-based business owners.

Speaking during an engagement with students of the School of Business at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the Assin Central lawmaker described the high-interest rate regime of commercial banks as ‘very ridiculous’.

“Interest rates in Ghana are very ridiculous and make it virtually impossible for local businesses to compete favourably with foreign companies,” he stressed.

He further indicated that most commercial banks have also added their profit margins to the loans they dished out to businesses – a move that has resulted in further hikes in interest rates.

“Many businesses have been complaining about this and the high-interest rates is one of the reasons most Ghanaian companies would rather import finished goods, instead of producing them locally,” he added.

The Assin Central lawmaker touching on the establishment of the Development Bank Ghana suggested that the non-deposit-taking institution must deal directly with businesses instead of lending money to commercial banks for onward lending to businesses.