The GH¢3 ball of kenkey, which was gradually vanishing at the various joints, has resurfaced, signalling a relief for consumers.
By June 2025, the GH¢3 ball appeared to have disappeared from the kenkey market altogether.
But in an interesting twist, the latest Kenkey Index has found it again. The GH¢3 ball has resurfaced at one location captured in the second-quarter survey, suggesting that the cheapest end of Ghana’s kenkey market may not be completely extinct after all.
But before anyone starts celebrating with a bowl of the stuff, there is an important catch. The GH¢3 ball remains extremely difficult to find. Its return is therefore less a full-blown comeback. However, it is a reminder and an indication that with good conditions, prices of essential goods can return to days of old.
And while the GH¢3 ball is making a quiet comeback, another ball is facing a rather different problem.
The GH¢7 ball is struggling to justify its place on the menu. The Kenkey Index says the GH¢7 option has been struggling with “selection difficulties” since last year. In ordinary Ghanaian language, the patrons of the staple delicacy are questioning its existence.
They believe a ball for GH¢7 with the current conditions is too much of a stretch and hence settle for the GH¢5 price, which has seen a significant increase in size over the last year.
The index reveals that at the bottom sits the elusive GH¢3 ball, cheap enough to attract attention, but increasingly difficult to locate. Then comes the more familiar middle ground, where consumers appear to be finding the best balance between price and quantity.
And somewhere further up sits the GH¢7 ball, which is discovering that charging more does not automatically make a product more desirable.
For many analysts, the “Kenkeynomics” is a more practical way of measuring the health of the economy. It reveals how Ghanaians are spending on something as essential as a staple food compared to their income and inflation.
The return of the GH¢3 ball is significant because it demonstrates that the bottom end of the market has not completely disappeared.
Its scarcity tells us how difficult it has become to maintain a low price point while dealing with the costs involved in producing and selling food.
For a consumer hunting for cheap food, however, that single surviving ball could be worth considerably more than its price suggests.
