Prices of food items have increased - opinion
Most predictions about the imminent price hikes couldn’t have been far-fetched. Those who pegged it as a ramification of the Russia and Ukraine political unrest, or the fierce battle of players within the supply chain amidst COVID-19, or deliberate import duties and whatnot, did us great forecasting.
That notwithstanding,
Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=3454'>COVID-19 isn’t that economically impeding. The State has passed the stage whenever corruption ensues, or poor fiscal policies inuring to bad deals and debts, then the innocent COVID-19 gets blamed. Also, whatsoever is happening between those two countries heckling each other, our share of it shouldn’t be this humongous, as it’s being made to seem right now.
Some weeks ago, a Twitter post by ‘Phasha Manapyane’ read, “They reduced number of Spaghetti sticks from 210 to 191.” This post came with scores of laughter, but in the comments box, other customers and consumers develop an intent of subsequently counting the diapers (and other products) they buy to see that business persons are not cheating them.
However humourous that post was, it was well-woven with wit, speaking poignantly towards today’s economic predicaments. Some manufacturers, in order to increase profit, would surreptitiously do so, that’s reducing the quantity of their produce by a little percentage, obliviously to the end-user.
Why’d they do so? They don’t want to be seen as increasing their price margin and suffer dire consequences of demand fall implications. Therefore they’d rather decrease the quantity a bit and kill the cat differently. This takes time before the end-user would notice the change.
Fuel price would shoot insignificantly. And then those milking the citizenry, in the name of inflation become exposed. Even private motorists who suffer the most when there’s fuel price increment because they don’t share the loss (increment) with anyone, do cry humbly. Whereas, commercial (or “trotro”) drivers, make the most noise as if they’re not happy whenever there’s an increment in fuel price. Their sales would boom significantly.
They would only suffer Gp 14 difference, if, for instance, there was a price increment from GH₵ 6.99 per liter to GH₵ 7.13 per liter. Unpatriotically, they’d increase the fare by Gp 70 per a passenger. Passengers would help them pay the difference and their profit margin increases more than 70%.
So business persons are part of the inflationary crisis currently. It has become rational for one to question vendors, especially those who sell on a very small scale. Three fingers of bananas would be sold at GH₵ 2. They are sometimes not looking healthy too. And these same vendors do get a handful of bananas for less than GH₵ 2 from those that buy them straight from the farmers. Yet when they get it from the market they overprice it and reduce the quantity.
A Ventolin inhaler was being sold at GH₵ 35. Just last month it was almost GH₵ 42. And today, the price has skyrocketed, ranging from GH₵ 62 to GH₵ 65, depending on the pharmacy.
More so, a dreadful turnout of an issue between a confidant and his landlady is that he paid his rent (two years in advance) last two years for GH₵ 380 a month. The landlady hadn’t done any changes to the room. Nothing had been installed. He, the tenant, has rather replaced the dilapidated taps and sink waste carrier, faulty electric breaker, repaired the faulty toilet bowl, which doesn’t make flushing the “things” so conveniently.
After two years d, and the landlady had come up with a new price. She’s taking GH₵ 700 for two years this time round. It took them hours of negotiation to prune the price to GH₵ 600. Even with that, no healthy conclusion has been made, when he tried to settle for a year in advance only. In two months, he can’t say whether the landlady would appreciate the one-year advance, or would evict him out.
Though the government and its agencies haven’t been agile to the plights of the compatriots they had sworn to serve, business persons have to be blamed alongside. They seemed happy whenever the dollar rate coughs, because a Gp 20 fall of the cedi at the exchange rate, to them, a 20 percent or more increment of their goods and services.
These among many others are how badly they’re milking the average citizen. It as if they’re working together with the government. They’d turn their back and cry that ‘we are in difficult times.
But when the ‘average’ citizens who’re feeling the pain would want to lament, political apparatchiks would ask where are their bachelor's degree(s) or PhDs in Business Finance, Statistics, and Macro and Micro Economics, as if anybody buys kenkey with stones.
Nobody is against making profit, therefore make your money. But apply sanity too. Excess profiteering is a killer. If the rich can afford it, think about the average person. The one surviving on hand to mouth basis. And those who’d have to walk on the scorching sun from the east to west before they could buy porridge and bread. Think! Just think! Thinking this way isn’t expensive but rewarding.
In this country, the effective demand of the citizenry is well-fettered because employment is only for the few chosen ones. Basic necessitates are luxurious. Thus, when citizens struggled so much to put their heads above water, what business persons can do to support their hustle, isn’t to further steal from them, or dip their heads back into the water and see them sink.
Now, of patriotism, if it is ‘dying for one’s country, one would ask, ‘is Ghana worth dying for at all?’
