Uncertainty grips informal sector ahead of polls
Players in the informal sector are recording slow sales as the country’s bitter, bizarre campaign season builds up to its December 7 conclusion tomorrow. Businesses across a range of industries are using the election as a data point, sometimes as an excuse to explain what is happening in their trade.
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The upcoming election will provide Ghana with new lawmakers as well as the next government in 2017, to steer the affairs of the country for the next four years. But what are the implications of this development for business activities across the country.
Checks by the GRAPHIC BUSINESS at various markets, including the Kaneshie, Makola, Madina, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Kasoa as well as the major transport stations revealed that everyone seemed to think that the wariness ahead of the election was affecting their business, sometimes for the better, mostly for the worse.
Most of them explained that sales for the past six months had slumped down drastically, a situation they explained had not been the case with previous election years.
That is not to say that government policies do not matter over the long run. Though President John Dramani Mahama and the leader of the biggest opposition party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are offering starkly contrasting prescriptions for improving the economy, worries about the outcome are probably not a big factor directly affecting the informal sector.
Some commercial transport operators and traders have told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS they are highly optimistic of increased sales towards the end of the year despite the upcoming general election.
Mr Jonas Mensah, a taxi driver who operates in Accra, told the paper that his daily sales had slumped by about 25 per cent, but could not explain the reason behind the development.
“For me, I am the owner of this taxi but I can tell you emphatically that my sales have reduced this election year but this was not the case with previous election years,” he said.
Though most of the players in the informal sector admit a general decline in their businesses, they were confident that it would affect their fortunes at the end of the year.
Uncertainty at the market
Mr Awal Mohammed, a shoe seller at Makola, explained that the uncertainty over the election could be affecting consumers’ willingness to buy shoes, saying his daily sales had slam down about 50 per cent.
He attributed the slow in business to happenings between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the presidential aspirants who were earlier disqualified from contesting Election 2016.
Mr Mohammed said he was hopeful the market would pick up before the end of the year.
Economist opinion
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute of Certified Economists of Ghana (ICEG), Mr Daniel Ameteye Anim, indicated that the uncertainty in some aspect of the country’s economy was normal.
“This is because resources invested into the electoral campaign across the political divide have been channeled towards particular angles of the economy which are transport, media, marketing, and advertising, hence the decline in sales for most part of the informal sector,” he said.
Although the economic activities were expected to pick up after the general election, he urged the informal sector to embrace themselves for more slow economic activities after the December 7 polls as people would be very careful in their spending towards the Christmas and New year festivity.
“The elections precedes the yuletide festivity which is the peak of sales for traders and transport operators but immediately after that school reopens and parents are expected to repay new bills as well as to spend money on educational materials to enrol their children,” he opined.
Mr Anim explained that the uncertainty over the elections with a possible second run coupled with payment of school fees might slow economic activities for the first quarter of 2017.
Ensuring peaceful election
He cited that businesses would not be able to perform better in unstable political environment; hence the country as a whole must ensure a peaceful electoral process.
“For us, peace is very critical and going forward we ask that all the stakeholders should play their game very well, so that at the end of the day we will have a peaceful election. Once we have peaceful elections and the political environment is stable, people could now go about doing their businesses in an atmosphere of peace and freedom in order to promote businesses as well as to attract investors,” he said.
Moving forward, the chief executive officer added that the ICEG remains resolute to ensuring that the government would create a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.
