Some traders in the Shama District of the Western Region are optimistic of better business in 2021 despite the impact of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020.
The traders stated that trading activities was not encouraging throughout the year 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Commercial activities were unexpectedly met with the impact of the COVID-19 in the year 2020 which disrupted the supply chains of food stuffs due to lockdown measures taken to curtail the spread of the pandemic, they stated.
Some of the traders who deal in perishable goods such as cassava, plantain, onion, garden eggs, tomatoes and pepper recounted how most of them got rotten due to the upsurge of COVID-19 in 2020 and it attendant restrictions.
They further narrated how they encountered huge losses as a result of lockdown measures put in place to curtail the pandemic.
However, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the traders expressed an unwavering faith that 2021 would bring overwhelming economic fortunes and hope for their trading activities.
The traders indicated that their expectations were that God would intervene this year to prevent any surge of Coronavirus, so that their businesses would flourish to help them rake in the needed profits.
In the words of Ms Judith Acquah-Forson, a trader at Beposo “in 2021, things will be different as compared to 2020, where the impacts of COVID-19 was inimical to trading activities”.
She was optimistic that the effective measures put in place to deal with the pandemic would encourage and repose confidence in their customers to come out to do business with them.
For Ms Adjoe, a trader and Food Joint operator at Shama Junction, her anticipation was that, the year 2021 would bring overwhelming economic fortunes and hope for their trading activities.
Mr John Donkor, who owns a provisions shop explained that he had no reason to complain as long as he was able to get his daily bread at the close of each day, expressing the hope to expand his business in the New Year.
Other traders at Assorko, Owusuaa Dwomo and Mena Atta Nyame thanked God for seeing them through the hiccups of 2020 and expressed the hope that 2021 would be a good business year despite a second wave of the pandemic in some parts of the world.
They urged the Government to continue to implement effective measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic to necessitate growth of their businesses.
Source: GNA
