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The Greedy Nature of Ghanaian Traders | They Price Goods Any How to Make About 1000% Profit

 

Traders in Ghana
Traders in Ghana

By default, the average Ghanaian trader is avaricious in so many ways. Maybe it might not be a fault of theirs, the country’s economic system may be a contributing factor to this.

How many times have you not enquired of the price of a particular product when the price quoted for you was way above what you expected to hear? Manufacturers of certain products price their goods (the ones meant for the market) before giving them out to sellers. The prices they fix are the standard prices that traders are supposed to sell the products for. Yet, countless Ghanaian traders heed not to this, but price them higher than they are permitted to.

For example, when buying recharge cards from telecommunication companies’ outlets to sell, merchants are not expected to sell the recharge cards above the specified amount on the cards. This is because the telecommunication companies sell the recharge cards to them below the price printed on the cards. Yet, there are some sellers who add extra coins, ranging from 10 to 50pesewas to the already specified amount on the cards.

The above example is just the least you can think of. In commerce law in Ghana (correct me on this if I am wrong), traders are required not to price a good 15% higher than the cost price of the product they are selling. Now here lies the real problem. A trader at Kantamanto can sell a pair of shoe for GHS70 when he/she actually bought it at GHS10.

What I have come to realise in Ghana is, almost all traders quote prices of goods from their heads without thinking. From the look of things, the average Ghanaian trader wants to make excessively more profit without even taking their customers into consideration.

Same can be said about the transportation system here. I will narrow it down to taxis since taxi drivers are culprits of this act. Unlike trotro drivers, taxi drivers do not have specified amounts they charge for services from one place to another (I am referring to floating taxi drivers).

All they have to do is to look at how the passenger is dressed and the kind of phone he/she is holding to enable them quote their price. The system doesn’t work like it does in other places where a passenger pays a cab driver based on the kilometers covered.

Sellers in Ghana
Sellers in Ghana

Ghana’s trade system has been made in such a way that traders have the free-will to price their goods anyhow without restrictions.

I was once buying a belt from a belt seller. According to him, the belt I wanted for myself was worth GHS 20. I bargained and paid GHS 5 in the end. I asked him how much profit he had made on the one I bought. Though he didn’t tell me, he made me aware that he wouldn’t have sold it to me at that price if he knew he wouldn’t make profit.

So you see, even though I paid GH 5 for the belt, the guy still made profit. Calculate how much profit he would have made if I had paid the GHS 20 he said the belt cost. Let’s say the cost price of the belt was GHS 4, quoting GHS 20 was unreasonable (400% above the cost price).

Pertaining to the law that requires Ghanaian traders not to quote price above 15% of the cost price, I honestly do not know how authorities will ensure that this happens. It therefore raises the question of how the authorities are going to determine the cost price and make buyers aware.

When we take a country like Malaysia as an example, foodstuffs are even weighed before the prices are given. If I want to buy cassava from a market in Malaysia, the weight displayed on the scale will determine how much I have to pay.

Back in my homeland Ghana, no trader has the time to do that. It’s pretty simple. “I want to buy GH5 worth of cassava.” All that is required on the part of the market woman is to use her imagination and count some cassavas she thinks is okay for me; and this is where the cheating sets in.

I do not know how prices are going to be regulated, but don’t you think Ghanaian traders are cheating killing us?



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2 thoughts on “The Greedy Nature of Ghanaian Traders | They Price Goods Any How to Make About 1000% Profit”

  1. great article…..hmmmmm I doubt if this is going to end in Ghana….these sellers will forever cheat us….do you blame them, even the government is cheating so why won’t they…..hmmmmm

    Reply
  2. great article…..hmmmmm I doubt if this is going to end in Ghana….these sellers will forever cheat us….do you blame them, even the government is cheating so why won’t they…..hmmmmm

    Reply

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