Ghanaians protest against government's handling of economy

ACCRA (Reuters) - More than 2,000 Ghanaians took to the streets of the capital Accra on Thursday as part of planned nationwide protests against what they say is the government's mishandling of the economy. The demonstration was organised by the biggest labour union – the Trades Union Congress (TUC) – and was the first nationwide protest since President John Dramani Mahama took office in January last year. The president is under pressure to turn around the economy of the oil, cocoa and gold-producing nation, once regarded as one of Africa's hottest frontier markets but now saddled with high inflation and a stubbornly wide government deficit. Inflation is running at close to 15 percent and the local cedi currency has fallen by around 30 percent against the dollar since January. The demonstrators, many wearing red shirts, armbands and headbands, red being the TUC's colour, chanted anti-government slogans and blew on Vuvuzela horns as they marched peacefully through the streets of Accra, escorted by the police. "Fatal error, (President John) Mahama's government must reboot now", read one placard held up by a demonstrator. "Fix the cedi now" and "Eh? Somalia's shilling is doing better than Ghana's cedi?" were among others. Ghana is still one of the fastest-growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, but even the middle class are suffering financially. Kudjoe Kyei, a 39-year old company driver said he joined the protest because the economic hardship had become unbearable. "Prices of goods are going up every day and we can't continue pretending," he told Reuters, adding that one of his two daughters had dropped out of school because he no longer had money to pay for her tuition.