The negative impact of Ghana’s partial lockdown affected all the 16 regions of Ghana but three regions that stood out were Ashanti Region, Volta Region and Upper East Region.
The three regions combined had more than one-fifth of agribusiness closed down during the May 2020 lockdown.
In the Ashanti Region, 21.2% of agribusiness firms were closed due to lockdown; whereas in the Volta Region 26.9% of firms were affected. In the Upper East Region, 25.5% of agriculture businesses were hard hit by the pandemic.
Interestingly, apart from the Ashanti region the remaining two regions ( Volta and Upper East) did not experience lockdown.
“ The Upper East and Volta Regions are border towns and the lockdown affected the borders so a lot of inputs did not come through as expected. Another reason for the large impact on these two regions is that, If I get my inputs in Accra and Accra is closed down, it affects my business . The regions have pass- through effects on another region”, Praise Nutakor, Head of Communications at the United Nations Development Programme( UNDP) cited.
The lockdown was implemented in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions but agribusiness firms in the Greater Accra Region were less affected than their counterpart in the Ashanti Region.
Post lockdown period indicates however that there are far more agribusiness firms that remain closed in the Greater Accra Region than in the Ashanti Region.
The report which was put together by the Ghana Statistical Service, the United Nations Development Programme and GIZ looked at the agribusiness situation that existed before the lockdown, during the lockdown and post lockdown from 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The report cited that overall, about 20.9 % of agribusiness firms nationwide were closed during the lockdown. Also an estimated 16,091 representing 11.6 percent of agribusiness closed due to the lockdown still remain closed after lifting of the lockdown. Service related businesses were most affected.
The report notes that overall, the estimated number of agribusiness workers that were laid off increased from 51,111 during the lockdown to 78,412 in the post lockdown period. The report mentioned.
By Richard Bright Addo|3news.com|Ghana