A survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that border towns in the North East, Upper East, Upper West and Volta Regions are the most impacted by Covid-19.
As a result of this, poverty which was already rampant in these areas has deepened and inequality is also rising in these communities, the study said.
However, the study noted that in spite of the economic challenges these communities were facing, their share of the intervention instituted to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 was minimal as compared to that of residents in areas that were partially locked down.
At the launch of the survey dubbed “Local Economies Tracker” in Accra, the Government Statistician, Prof Samuel Kobina Annim, said the economic impact of COVID-19 in localities in border districts was high as sales in these areas reduced by 93.2% and production activities also reduced by 74.5%.
According to Prof Annim, prices of goods and services in the border districts have gone up by 5.8 percent, adding that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages now stood at 6.6 percent in these areas as compared to lockdown areas and other parts of Ghana.
He said some of the areas in the border districts did not benefit from the government’s relief package on electricity and free water since they were not connected to the national grid and also did not have access to pipe-borne water.
Prof Annim added that food assistance and free water supply received by residents in lockdown areas exceeded that of border districts by 78 percent and 26 percent respectively.
He said about 71 percent of Ghanaians received some form of assistance to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19, adding that residents in the lockdown areas received the highest assistance.
He hinted that over 50% of residents in the lockdown areas benefited from the government’s assistance, adding that non-state organisations such as churches and philanthropists also supported the government in this direction.
The study shows that 19.2% of people borrowed from friends and families to mitigate the impact of the virus, also 20.6% received assistance from families and friends and 11.9% relied on their savings.
The Local Economy Tracker was conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB) and is aimed at gathering data that would enable the government and its development partners to come out with measures to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 on individuals, households and localities in Ghana.
The survey was conducted between May 28 and June 20, 2020, and data was collected from 2,770 localities across all districts in the country – the 40 lockdown districts, the 47 border districts and the 173 districts that were neither locked down nor were on the borders of Ghana.
Ishmael Batoma & Geraldo Amartey, ISD
