Negative effects of increase in cooking oil prices

Ghana is faced with miraculous inflation of goods and services. Just within weeks, the price of cooking oil keeps changing form like a chameleon.

It started slowly from GH₵‎360 and then moved to GH₵‎600; now it’s battling between CH₵‎1000-1200.

When it happens this way, it’s the average Ghanaian that suffers the ripple effect. And this time, it is severe; suffice it to say everyone is badly hit, as stated below.

1. Businesses folding up: Petty vendors who’re into fried yam and fried bun loaves (a.k.a Too gb33) are being forced to collapse. How would they cope with the galloping price!? They should buy cooking oil for GH₵‎1000 and use it for a trade whose returns are meagre (or aren’t assured).

2. Shortchanging buyers: Those vendors who’ll keep to the business will have to sell with an ‘iron head’. They’d trim the size of the bun loaves, and with the fried yam, it’d come in small sizes and numbers.

3. Unhealthy cooking style: In order to save cost, these vendors would now have to fry throughout the week with the same cooking oil without changing it. This style of cooking isn’t good, as it increases the level of cholesterol.

4. Desperation in petty trading: Vendors would soon get fed up as petty business is being made expensive. Even with GH₵1000, one would soon not find any profitable business to do.

5. Overall hardship: People who do hand-to-mouth would now have to use a chunk of their daily wages to buy a small amount of food.

What at all did we do wrong as citizens? Was it because we wanted ‘change’, so we got shortchanged!?