Advertisement

Street hawking, the right to survive and the law

The streets of Accra are filled with creative choruses from hawkers screaming at the top of their voices to attract buyers to a variety of items they offer for sale.

 

From morning till night, one can shop for clothes, cutlery, wrist watches, wall clocks, pillows, stationeries, drinking water, confectionery and sweets, among many more items, in street alleys, depending on the time of day.

Buyers seem not to care that most of these items are counterfeit and are of low quality probably because they are just as shiny as the original, serve the same purpose and have moderate if not cheaper prices, if one can bargain well.

On an average day, a hawker who has worked for 12 hours can make between GH£50 and GH¢150.

The situation is similar in Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi and other cities and major towns.

Life as a hawker

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mr Lawrence Odai, a night hawker, who resides at Lashibi, a suburb of Accra, said, “I sell an average of 50 packets of condoms on weeknights while during weekends I can sell more than 80 per night”.

Pointing to his tray which contained different brands of condoms, Mr Odai said the prices ranged from GH50p  to GH¢5,  adding that most of his customers were women.

“You see, I operate around this area (Circle Las Vegas, a night club), and at night most women who come to work here at night buy a lot. Some buy dozens, others even buy on credit and pay later,” he said in Twi.

The 22-year-old hawker says he started the business after he completed junior high school (JHS) and has since been hooked to it because it enabled him to take care of three other siblings and a mother.

“My dad died when I was 15 and my mom is not working. So as the eldest, I take care of everything,” he said.

Another hawker, Madam Judith Agyei, who sells seasonal items, said she made between GH¢200 and GH¢400 a day and on a good day, she made GH¢ 500.

Her good seasons are the rainy season and Christmas. “Items like umbrellas are in high demand during the rainy season and people buy a variety of items when Christmas comes around. This provides me with the opportunity to sell all manner of items, and I make a lot of money,” she said.

A young man who would not give his name, said others used the items they hawked openly on the streets only as a facade to sell illegal substances such as marijuana and cocaine.

He claimed that such hawkers had their special clients who patronised them and also recommended them to other people who use drugs.

On an average day, a hawker who has worked for 12 hours can make between GH¢50 and GH¢150. This is from selling an array of common items like candy, biscuits, chewing gum, drinking water, sodas and airtime.

Risks and expectations

Many hawkers enter the trade expecting to graduate from street vending to become shop owners.

In-between vending on the streets and becoming the proud owner of a shop, hawkers face numerous risks and challenges like road accidents, robbery, pick pocketing, seizure of goods by the authorities, exposure to dust, heat and the vagaries of the weather.

Hawking attracts fines and/or imprisonment because businesses require licenses to operate.

It also violates laws of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on noise pollution as hawkers make excessive noise to attract customers to buy their wares.

However, in a bid to safeguard the hawkers’ right to earn a living, the government has allocated specific locations for hawking.

Regulations

The Odawna Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle is one such location. It was opened in 2007, by the AMA to function as the official hawkers market closest to the Central Business District (CBD) and to also settle displaced hawkers.

It can be recalled that the assembly, with support from the central government spent over GH¢20 million on the construction of the mall which was intended to accommodate over 4,000 hawkers. 

In March 2007, the assembly gave a two-week ultimatum to hawkers who had been allocated spaces at the mall to occupy them immediately or lose them.

The then Mayor of Accra, Mr Stanley Adjiri-Blankson, expressed sadness that after spending “fortunes” to put up the mall, some hawkers have failed to occupy the spaces allocated to them and were still squatting.

Subsequently, the current Metropolitan Chief Executiver of Accra, Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpujie, has on countless occasions decongested the CBD, particularly of hawkers on the streets, only for them to return after a short time.

The assembly on April 1, 2011 released new bye-laws approved by the Local Government ministry to arrest anyone who engaged in street hawking as well as those who patronised the wares of street hawkers.

By the new laws, no one is allowed to sell any merchandise to a driver of a vehicle or passenger but the laws is yet to be enforced.

The situation, no doubt has emboldened hawkers to take over and ply their trade along major streets and pavements while markets stalls for them remain vacant.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |