A mechanic assistant has found a way of balancing his domestic budget, following the rising cost of food amid stagnant daily wages.

Jephthah eats one heavy meal, usually late lunch, so he can save some money for rainy days. His daily wage is ¢20.

The Accra-based Mechanic said it is difficult to afford food these days due to what he calls hard times.

Speaking to JoyNews on the Living Standard Series, he noted that “my daily ‘chop’ money is not fixed, it depends on what you get per day.”

“I save but unless maybe I get some GH¢50; for that, I can save around GH¢10 or GH¢5 but if it’s less than GH¢30, savings will be very difficult.”

Similarly, Jephthah’s colleague, 16-year-old Daniel Kwarman, says life in Accra is already a challenge, four months after migrating from Saltpond in the Central Region.

To become successful and support his family, he relocated to Accra after completing the Junior High School (JHS) to learn to be a Mechanic.

According to him, there is no future for him at Saltpond but he has been facing a rude economic shock in the nation’s capital.

To make ends meet, he misses breakfast and makes up for a big lunch with a GH¢10 bowl of beans, gari, fried plantain and an egg.

“Life in Accra is expensive than in Saltpond. At Saltpond, if you get GH¢10, you can afford three-square meals in a day but in Accra, same amount can only cater for breakfast.”

“You can buy kenkey, rice, gari and other things with GH¢10 in Saltpond but in Accra, the same amount will be finished after buying waakye,” he said.

He is still learning to adjust to an ever-expensive Accra. His GH¢15 daily wage is mainly spent on food and water. Savings, for now, is out of the equation.

Kenkey price has shifted from GH¢2 to GH¢3 at Kenkey arena.

This is because customers have been complaining about the shrinking size of the GH¢2 kenkey.

To tame wagging tongues about the size of kenkey, a sizeable one has been increased to GH¢3, a 50 per cent increase just at the beginning of the year.

A food vendor, Naa, says despite the high cost of groceries, she manages to serve customers quality and affordable food.

“A ball of kenkey is GH¢3; it was GH¢2 last year but because of the hike in prices of most of these raw materials like maize, the husk and almost everything used in preparing the kenkey, the cost has increased.”

Traders have had to adjust their prices to cushion their businesses.

Recent inflation figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) saw inflation pegged at 18 per cent as of January, 2022. Inflation has also caused the prices of food to skyrocket.

The Content Manager at Esoko Ghana, Francis Adjei, breaks down the figures and explains what can be done to realistically tackle the growing inflation.

“Currently, the food inflation is at 13.7. If we are doing 13.7 at the beginning of the year, we are not expecting any more large volumes commodities or crop coming in.”

“We need to do basically three things - to improve on our post-harvest management of the commodities that we have, improve on our farming methods and practices and check how we transport these commodities,” he stated.

JoyNews’ Living Standard Series

In an all-new show, the Living Standard Series, JoyNews is set to tell the stories of how the average Ghanaian is surviving in current times after the ravaging impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.

People continue to be negatively affected by the harsh economic climate and skyrocketing inflation on food and goods.

The Living Standard Series is live on Joy FM, JoyNews on MultiTV and all social media platforms.