In sample interviews with the Ghanaian Times, the traders ob­served that the low sales of goods had affected their profit margins.

With Christmas approaching, one would expect to see customers busily purchasing goods such as fowls, rice, eggs, yam and vegeta­bles among others for the celebra­tion at various market centres.

However, the Ghanaian Times has observed during a market survey that most of the traders were found seated behind their goods while others tried to convince cus­tomers to purchase their items.

According to them, even though their goods were patronised earlier before the Christmas celebrations, there had not been an improve­ment in sales.

While some attributed the low sales of goods and services to the economic challenges of the country, others said because most workers had not been paid.

Mr Fuseini, a fowl seller at the Kaneshie Market asserted that sales had been very low as compared to last year.

According to him the average cost of a fowl now is GH¢200 depending on its weight and size as compared to the same bird costing GH¢120 last year and attributed it to the high cost of poultry feed.

With a few days left for the celebration of Christmas, he could sell only 90 out of the 900 birds as compared to the 800 fowls he sold within the same period last year, he added.

Ms Adwoa Tetteh, a fabric sell­er at Makola market, however, stat­ed that most people now purchase already-made dresses instead of the materials and fabrics for tailors to sew for them.

“People won’t buy a Ghana Textiles Printers (GTP) material ranging from GH¢150 and they won’t want to pay a tailor extra for sewing it,” she said.

An imported rice retailer, Ms Elizabeth Adjei, said the patronage of rice was very low compared to last year as the price of imported rice had gone up.

She explained that currently, a 5kg bag of rice which was being sold on the market for GH¢100 in November was now being sold for GH¢130.

The increment in the price of rice, she opined had brought a decline in the purchase of rice, and therefore called on the government to regulate its price.

“We are not seeing any improve­ment in sales. You can see that there aren’t enough people passing through our lanes, we have been here all day, and virtually nothing is happening,” Mrs Antwi added.

Mr Charles Nyarko, a beverage dealer also said, “As you can see I have not sold up to GH¢300. 00, but usually I would have sold close to GH¢9,000 the people you see are only doing window shopping”.

Ms Margret Acheampong, a fabric dealer, attributed the high cost of materials to the increase in port duties but was hopeful things would change for the better.

“The price at which we buy from China and other places is the same, but the port duties have increased which is affecting the pricing of our goods. High Target cloth was initially GH¢70 but is now GH¢100,” Ms Acheampong said.

BY BENJAMIN ARCTON TETTEY, PRECIOUS
BOAKYE, AGNES OWUSU