Exploring the Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in Marketplaces in Urban Ghana

Abstract

This article explores Ghana’s preventive measures for stemming the spread of the COVID-19 disease among its population and the socio-economic impact of these measures in urban marketplaces. It argues that Ghana’s COVID-19 approach in marketplaces was characterised by (1) improving hygiene conditions through disinfection of all markets, (2) closing down markets to enforce social distancing among traders, and (3) imposing a lockdown to decongest densely populated marketplaces. Yet the micro-geographies of Ghana’s marketplaces complicated the implementation of these preventive measures. The socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in marketplaces were evident in the increased food prices, the economic hardships associated with the lockdown directive, and the forceful relocation and decongestion exercises to enforce social distancing among traders. The hostile nature with which municipal authorities implemented the COVID-19 preventive measures in marketplaces is akin to how they sought to decongest inner cities prior to the emergence of COVID-19.