Among five key Sub Saharan African countries, Ghana was ranked second worst in terms of impact of logistics/transportation cost on prices of consumer goods

According to Standard Bank’s Consumer Insight Report, this is impacting significantly on prices of consumer goods on the market.

In Ghana and most sub-Sahara African countries, transportation costs represent 50 to 70 percent of the retail price of goods.

“African governments have begun to make progress in this respect, with Ghana committing US$2.5 billion to transport infrastructure development over 2019 while Kenya has improved the length of its national highways threefold since 2013.”

This the Standard Bank survey said is due to longer supply chains which is further complicated by weak infrastructure.

However, it pointed out that the government has begun to make progress in the transportation sector, committing about $2.5 billion to transport infrastructure development in 2019.

The report emphasized that improvements in the transport space will go a long way to alleviate pressure on the cost lines of Consumer Goods Firms and retailers.

This will subsequently impact on inflation as prices of goods particularly foodstuffs from the hinterlands may go down significantly when roads and other transportation infrastructure improve and ease movement.

Ethiopia was ranked 1^st with the worst transportation cost on price of consumer goods.

South Africa however is the country with the best logistics cost on the continent, even doing better than India and Russia.

It is not surprising that Consumer Price Index is very low in South Africa compared to Ghana, whose inflation is lower than Nigeria and Kenya.

December 2020 inflation

Inflation ended the year 2020 by going up in the month of December 2020 to 10.4%, a marginal increase over that of November 2020, data from the Ghana Statistical Service revealed.

This means prices of some goods and services went up during the month of the Christmas festivity, largely due to household and business spending.