It is now a serious issue in Ghana when it comes to rising food prices and the latest, among other things, in Kumasi is the sudden increase in the price of beans which has affected the favourite delicacy of most students, beans and gari with fried ripe plantain, popularly known as Gob3 in the Akan dialect.
The sellers of gari and beans popularly called ‘gob3’ in the Ashanti Region especially in Kumasi, are no more selling the dish at one cedi as it were as a result of the price increment.
A bowl is now going for one cedi fifty pesewas at its cheapest level. This is because the price of beans has shot up by 100 percent since October and consumers have started feeling the impact of the increase. Indeed prices of everything are increasing constantly.
Some students in the Kumasi Metropolis are lamenting about the situation. For instance, 22-year-old Godbless Nuamah who loves Gob3 told JoyNews how this increment in prices of beans has adversely affected him. To him, a day without eating this food means he has to spend more but now his economics is also being interfered with.
According to him, beans is one of his favourite foods because it's less expensive as compared to the other foods. His daily budget has been affected due to the price increase. As a student, the meal sustains him through the day at a minimal cost but the situation is different now.
"With just four cedis I used to get satisfied but now I have to buy more than four cedis or I have to go for a second round to get fully satisfied," he told Joy News.
A dealer in beans, Afia Mansah, carefully pounds the unwholesome quantity of beans in a mortar with a pistol. This activity is to easily separate chaff from the beans properly before she cooks it. She then pours the beans on a perforated wooden tray, rubs her hands on the beans to get rid of the chaffs. She does this because she believes the price of the beans in that state is relatively cheaper compared to the one already in packaged in sacks in the markets.
In spite of this measuresshe put in place, she said, "I have stopped selling the beans at 1.00 cedis, it's now 1.50 pesewas or 2.00 cedis. Though I have increased the prices I hardly make profits like I used to."
Beans in retail are often sold in locally measured cups, container bowls and sometimes bags for wholesale. A cup of beans in the Kumasi Central Market was sold at 2.50p between January and September. However, it has suddenly shot up to 5.00 cedis per cup overnight.
"The price of the beans keeps going up, that is why we have increased the prices and our customers complain about the new price. But no one is to blame because it is the prevailing circumstances that is compelling us to increase prices," she said.
Well, it is evident that until the Ghana cedi stops depreciating and fuel prices are reduced, food prices will keep going high. Is it still ideal to buy the idea of the government that the figures shows inflation has been brought to a single digit?
Should we believe the "figures" or face the "reality" on the ground? Share your thoughts.
Content created and supplied by: Discoverers_Gh (via Opera News )
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