Household incomes still below pre-COVID levels -GSS report

A new report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated that the incomes of two-thirds of households in the country have still not recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The research which was done in the first two weeks of December 2021 indicated that only 26.7 per cent of respondents had their incomes being the same as compared to the period before COVID-19 (March 16, 2020).

About 5.1 per cent of them noted that their total income had increased beyond pre-COVID-19 levels, while 68.2 per cent indicated that their household income decreased.

Of the different sources of income, non-farm family business income saw the biggest reduction, with 77.3 per cent of households with income derived from a non-farm family business seeing a decrease in income, while 4.4 per cent reported an increase in income.
The 4.2 per cent of households who got income from pension saw the smallest change of this income source, with 76.7 per cent reporting no change in pension income, while 13 per cent reported a reduction, with 10.3 per cent reporting an increase.

Depending on borrowing

The report highlighted that borrowing became the most frequent coping strategies in 2021, with approximately 86.7 per cent of households using some sort of coping strategy to deal with the negative effects of COVID-19 since March 2020.

The most common coping strategies included relying on savings (43 per cent) and reducing food consumption (42.9 per cent).

Respondents reported that most types of coping strategies were used more often in 2020 than in 2021.

The exception to this was the borrowing from friends and family and the use of credited purchases.

Increase in prices

An increase in prices was identified as the most common shock experienced by households.

When asked about what shocks households experienced due to COVID-19 since March 2020, 73.4 per cent indicated that they experienced an increase in the price of major food items consumed and 46.5 per cent indicated that they were affected by the increase of the price of inputs.

About 58.7 per cent of households indicated that they were affected by the school closures, but the majority (92.1 per cent) of households indicated that this shock occurred in 2020.

Other shocks were felt more evenly throughout 2020, and the first and second half of 2021.

Ghanaians didn’t test for COVID-19

The report further indicated that majority of Ghanaians never got tested for COVID-19, with 21.6 per cent of respondents indicating that they had ever been tested for COVID-19.

Of the people who did get tested, most got tested at a government facility.

When asked if people in their community got tested when showing COVID-19 symptoms, 81.8 per cent indicated that either none or only a few people got tested for COVID-19.

The fear of stigma was identified as the predominant reason people did not get tested.

The most common reason (37.8 per cent) given for not testing was the stigma around testing positive for COVID-19.

Just 5.9 per cent of respondents indicated that the unavailability or distance to a testing facility (3.8 per cent) was the reason people did not get tested for COVID-19.

GHȼ12 spent on PPE

The report also highlighted that on average, households spent GHȼ12 on personal protective equipment per week.

The median expenditure on PPE (masks, sanitisers, face shields, etc.) per household on the seven days before the gathering of the data was GHȼ12 and the mean expenditure was GHȼ22

The median expenditure was slightly higher in urban areas (GH₵14) than in rural areas (GH₵10.3).