Street hawking: Ghana’s time bomb
Hawking in the country’s cities continues to assume alarming proportions.
The situation in Accra, has assumed both a sophisticated and alarming trend with more youths resorting to hawking.
On a daily basis, an increasing number of hawkers- both young men and women- swim the various traffic locations with their wares, ranging from food items, toys, underwear to mousetrap.
They vigorously compete with cars and commuters for space and engage in dangerous racing after vehicles to sell.
The hawking menace, which has become lucrative for some business whose wares are mainly sold by hawkers, continuous to be an indictment of the nation’s training and employment systems.
A survey conducted by ADR Daily in Accra indicated that two out of three hawkers had completed junior high school, while one of three had undergone some form of technical or vocational training.
They opted for the street business due to the failure of society and State policies to accommodate and help them to develop their entrepreneurial talents.
Prof. Peter Quartey, Head of Economics Department at the University of Ghana, attributes the country’s haphazard street hawking phenomenon to general policy failure.
Although he acknowledged that street hawking exists in other countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and other developed countries, he explained that it is controlled in these countries which permit open markets along streets on particularly days.
Until measures are taken to check street hawking, the menace would continue to swell, like a ticking time bomb, and explode.
Vocational and technical training is the only way out to support the hawkers to secure meaningful employment.
By Kwame Adufutse/adrdaily.com
