Simon Tichutab Onilimor, a Data Scientist at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has advised stakeholders and the government to prioritize Ghana’s food basket to reduce inflation.
He said there is a need for them to collaborate with ministries and agencies related to food production to improve the pricing of food items and reduce imports.
According to the Bank of Ghana, Ghana’s inflation rate is 23.8%, indicating that the average price of goods and services in the country has increased by nearly 24% over the past year. This suggests that everyday items like food, transportation, and utilities are becoming more expensive for citizens.
Essentially, people will buy less with the same amount of money, leading to low living standards, especially for those in lower-income brackets.
Ghana’s food basket consists of essential house commodities such as beef, bread, yam, fresh tomatoes, cooked rice with stew, kenkey with fish, fried plantain with beans, smoked river fish, smoked herrings, local gin, sea fish and onions, are the most items identified to have appeared consistently as top-ranked items between 2018 and 2024 according to GSS.
However, Simon Tichutab Onilimor said it is important to understand the multifaceted factors contributing to consumer price inflation and to help stakeholders generate comprehensive discussions on the development of strategies to address them.
“We need to know if we are producing enough and what exactly we are producing, what is the gap between the farm gates and the market prices. What happens in transporting these food items from the farms to the market,” he said.
Nonetheless, the Ghana Statistical Service said a critical review of 2024 consumer price indices is one of the factors to be considered in the computation of the annual rate of inflation in 2025.
Urging, government and institutions to consider thorough analysis with farmers and investors to ensure Ghana’s agriculture thrives for food security.
Ultimately, reducing imported produce, encouraging local production, improving roads, and investing in agricultural production will reduce the rate of price increases, and improve purchasing power for a stabilized economy.
