Traders in the Central Business District of Accra say increments in transport fares are driving up prices of commodities in the market.
The traders said that though prices of commodities had been increasing at source since the beginning of the year, the added cost incurred by transporting the commodities to the market was the main cause of price hikes.
“Already, the price has increased from where we buy the fish. So, boarding a car to Tema to buy and bring it home to smoke before I send it to the market, there is an added cost, which I also factor into the price of the fish.” Maame Adjeley who sells smoked fish at the Makola market told the Ghana News Agency.
Maame Adjeley who noted that the situation has dwindled her income, making her stop buying fresh fish from Tema, and resorted to buying from a nearby cold store to reduce the transport cost, stay in business and be able to take care of her family.
Maame Adjeley shared the narrative with Madam Victoria Kogbe, an onion trader, who also told GNA that the price of a sack of the commodity increased from GHS400 in January this year, to GHS600, on Wednesday.
She explained that the main driver of such increment was the cost of transportation as those who brought the commodity from Niger equally complained about hikes in transport fares, which built on the price of the commodity.
Recently, the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, blamed the rapid rise in prices of goods on the shelves of the United States of America on a cartel responsible for global shipping, stating that since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, they have unilaterally increased the prices of their services astronomically, leading to higher prices for the consumer and end user.
The fact of the matter is that any increase in prices, would eventually end up as profit in somebody’s account, somewhere. Once various interest groups decide to band together to present a common front and to stifle competition, there arises a real danger that these interests would also control prices, and in this case, make unlawful and unjustifiable profits.
The Daily Searchlight believes that it is time for managers of countries and systems to begin thinking outside the box on how they can mitigate the effects of the activities of international profiteers. They should begin to think on possible solutions that would bring these profiteers to a sense of social responsibility, because the fact of the matter is that their activities, in a very real sense, is likely to lead to social upheaval and destabilization of entire nations and geographical regions.
The world is currently combatting many ills, and it is totally unhealthy, that unmitigated capitalism would also seek to profit out of the suffering of billions of people who have no choice.
