Traders and shoppers in the Central Business District of Accra have ignored the COVID-19 pandemic safety protocols as they struggle to engage in brisk business for Christmas. Most traders and customers, pedestrians, as well as window shoppers, the Ghana News Agency, encountered on Friday during a tour of the Central Business District were without nose masks.
Some of the shoppers were using the nose masks while others have them on their chins. Hand washing was absent as most of the shops removed the veronica buckets in front of their shops. All the safety protocols of the World Health Organisation and the Ghana Health Service and the Government COVID-19 preventive measures have been ignored at these markets.
Scores of traders at the Okaishie and Makola markets in Accra, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, were rather worried about the poor sales and have little or no concern at all about COVID-19 protocols. They were frustrated that due to COVID-19 Christmas sales is very poor.
The traders in these markets attributed low patronage of Xmas products to the Coronavirus pandemic “There are lots of people moving from one shop to the other just watching and asking prices but not buying anything.”
Madam Adwoa Nyamekeye, a trader in beverages, said business had not been booming since the lockdown was lifted.
“We planned that things will be different during the weeks to Xmas but no, things are the same, people are not buying, our goods are locked up in our shops,” she said. She said the approach of Christmas had not increased sales, unlike previous years where customers trooped in to purchase beverages to celebrate the festive season.