As Christian faithful across the world prepare to celebrate this year’s Christmas, traders and transporters in Accra and other parts of the country are lamenting over low patronage of their goods and services.
They attributed the low patronage to the poor economic situation in the country but expressed hope, that there may be improvement in sales before the year runs out.
Our correspondents, who went round the Accra metropolis, attested to the fact that turnout to market places was very low when compared with the usual busy Christmas season in the past.
Views gathered by the Business Day from traders at the Central Business District of Accra and other major markets such as Kaneshie and the Mallam Atta indicate a drop in sales compared to December 2014.
“Sales was near normal some few weeks ago but it appears the general public is being careful with their purchase to forestall any financial hardship after the festive season in January,”a second-hand shoe seller in Kantamanto, Yaw Badu told the Business Day.
At the Kaneshie and Mallam Atta markets for instance, there was no increment in the prices of food items.
“You know that these food items are also perishable in nature so one must try as much as possible to get them sold but despite the low prices people are still not buying,” a vegetable seller, Mary Ghansah said.
Esoko’s Report on prices of foodstuff few weeks ago
By the end of November, Esoko, a leader in Market survey in Ghana reported of price decline few weeks to Christmas.
According to Esoko, the price of rice declined by nine percent in the last week of November at an average price of GHc 25.00 for “one small bag of 5kg [imported-Unclesam]”.
This was followed by Maize which made a five-percent drop to close that same week at GHc 4.00 per olunka. Yam (Pona) also followed with four percent drop to close the period under review at GHc 3.60 and Soya bean dropped by 2 percent at GHc 6.40 per olunka.
In the same period, Cassava (Gari) and Groundnut dropped by a percentage point each to close at GHc 4.40 and 12 .90 per olunka respectively. Esoko Ghana reported that tomato gained four percent at GHc 11.70 per “medium size tomato tin.”
Cowpea followed with 2 percent gained at GHc 7.80 per olunka and Cassava (fresh tubers) also gained a percentage point at 3.60 per 3-4 tubers.
Other commodity prices that remained unchanged.
According to Esoko, on the various markets in the period under review , the price for an “olunka” of maize dropped by 20 percent in Dambai at GHc 4.00, by 16 percent in Bawku at GHcS 3.00 and by 2 percent in Kumasi at GHc 5.00.
Techiman
In Techiman, a “medium size tomato tin” full of fresh tomatoes lost 11 percent in Techiman to close the week at that time at GHc 11.50. The commodity however made some gains in Kumasi and Dambai.
Kumasi
In Kumasi, it gained 14 percent to close at GHc 9.10 and in Dambai by 76 percentage to close the week at the period at GHc 7.90.
