Covid-19: Market women recount harsh economic ordeal in Townhall meeting

Covid-19: Market women recount harsh economic ordeal in Townhall meeting

Market women in the pro-poor communities of Kasoa in the Greater Accra Region, have recounted the harsh economic conditions they, together with their dependents experienced during the lockdown period in 2020.

In a townhall meeting held by BudgIT Ghana with support from Oxlade and Open Society Foundation, the market women in attendance identified loss of capital to trade resulting in loss of employment (most of the traders are self-employed), destruction of goods or products and inhumane treatment from personnel of the security agencies, are among the many adverse impacts of the lockdown and the pandemic at large on their lives and that of their families.

Auntie Sophia, a pepper seller in one of the pro-poor communities in Kasoa, said life was unbearable during the lockdown as she was unable to sell to feed herself and her family, something she easily would have done in the absence of the lockdown.

“There was a lot of suffering during the lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, my family and I really suffered because we didn’t have money to feed ourselves,” Auntie Sophia told BudgIT Ghana.

For Maa Mercy, a cassava seller, her bags of cassava which she had bought to sell some days prior to the announcement of the 2-week lockdown period, all got rotten resulting in the loss of her capital.

“All my cassava got rotten, because the military and police personnel sent to our environs would not allows us to go and sell during the lockdown.

“When the lockdown was lifted, we were relocated to a school park from the main Kasoa market to sell there, but buyers won’t come all the way to the school to buy from us, hence all our goods perished,” she said.

The same was the story of Beatrice, a tomato seller.

According to the market women, most of them lost their capital to continue trading after the 2-week lockdown period, for some, they are yet to get hold of money to re-start their trade.

Quizzed if any of them was a beneficiary of the soft loans disbursed by the government through the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises amid the heat of the pandemic, there was a unanimous response of “no” with some saying that they were even defrauded in the process of applying for the loan.

For those, who lost their capital to trade as a result of the lockdown, they tell BudgIT Ghana’s Jennifer Moffat, that they are now indebted because they’ve gone in for loans with high interest rates to start a new trade.

The COVID-19 pandemic had multiple effects on people’s lives – loss of life, employment, income and worsening of living conditions.

It is estimated that globally, there were 114 million employment losses and a labour income loss of around $3.7 trillion.

In Ghana, a survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) during the Covid pandemic revealed that the coronavirus pandemic led to a significant decline of sales in about 90 percent of local businesses surveyed in 2,770 localities in the country from May to June 2020.

As a result of lock down measures and other restrictions imposed by government to contain the spread of the virus, businesses in the services sector recorded the highest number of closures as more than 96,200 businesses were not operating within the period under discussion. Trade followed with more than 27,200 business closures, with accommodation and food also seeing more than 16,900 businesses closed in the period.

The manufacturing sector also had more than 14,900 businesses closed; with agriculture and other industry also seeing 5,157 and 445 businesses closed.

The Townhall meeting held by BudgIT Ghana was aimed at providing stakeholders the opportunity to share experiences about their resiliency adaptive strategies during and post-Covid-19 economic recovery.

It was also to generate a strategic business level discussion data on lessons into future socioeconomic preparedness and response to strengthen business resiliencies.

Additionally, it was also to advocate for integrating community socioeconomic resilience strategies’ adaptation into transparency, participation and accountability frameworks in the utilization of public funds at the national level and local level by BudgIT Ghana.