Despite the slowdown of the Ghanaian economy, there seem to be an
increase in volume of sales of alcoholic beverages as consumers shift
their spending to discretionary items.
This is according to the Managing Director of Nielsen West Africa, Lampe Omoyele.
He argues that most Ghanaians at the peak of the economic challenges
resorted to alcohol as a way of dealing with their economic challenge.
“Globally it’s been seen that during economic challenges, people turn
to look for escape and alcohol is one of the routes of escape. But one
of the things that we also find is that during the period of economic
challenges in Ghana, people resorted to alcohol. The story is same in
Nigeria as it is also in the situation Ghana used to be during the
economic down turn,” he asserted.
Mr. Omoyele also added, “The growth of alcoholic beverages in quarter
one of 2015 has been driven by Origin, the innovative Origin and it is
because of the innovation that we see that growth.”
Lampe Omoyele made these remarks during Citi Fm’s collaboration with
the Chartered Instituted of Marketing Ghana as part of Citi Business
Festival on the topic “Winning With the Consumer and the Shopper” at the
Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra.
Consumers acting rationally to changing economic situations
Mr. Omoyele maintained that even though the Ghanaian economy may be
on the road to recovery, brands that will survive or stay in competition
are those that will be able to provide the needs of the consumer.
He says available statistics on year-to-date 2016 comparing with
year-to-date 2015 shows that the total basket value growth in Ghana is
at 11% as consumers are spending more on food related items and also
home and personal care.
Lampe Omoyele made a strong case that increasing inflation, cedi
depreciation, power crisis, VAT on petroleum and taxes among others have
contributed to Ghana becoming one of the countries with the least
affordable basket.
“When there is inflation but wages do not increase to correspond,
then consumers’ disposable income will decline. Ghana’s inflation has
increased significantly in the last 24 months from 14% to over 18% in
2016.”
“When that happens then consumers begin to rationalize. This means
they don’t have enough money to spend and they rationalize by doing away
with some of the things they feel are not important,” he observed.
It is clear that in the almost past two to three decades, Ghanaian
consumers’ shopping habits have changed dramatically as incomes have
either risen or dwindled depending on your incomes levels and new
products and concepts have entered the Ghana market.
The corresponding effect is that consumer habits in Ghana continue to
evolve and examining generations of consumers, it can reveal certain
shopping trends with the rich going for the high end goods and services
but the average Ghanaian also begin to look for alternatives.
But it is clear that both the high end and average consumers all
resort to taking of alcohol as a means to solving problems they
encounter or when in happy mode.
Ghana has low consumer purchasing power
Meanwhile Ghana is said to be among countries with low consumer purchasing power.
According to the report, Uganda has the most affordable basket at
10.99 dollars, Lesotho follows with 14.70 dollars, Swaziland is next at
14.99 dollars and Kenya and South Africa are at 15.06 and 15.33 dollars
respectively.
For the list of countries with the least affordable basket where
Ghana falls in, South Sudan is the highest at 38.60 dollars, Angola is
at number two with 33.57 dollars, DRC comes in at number three with 28.80 dollars, and Ghana is at number four at 27.50 dollars followed by Cote D’Ivore with 24.55 dollars.
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Source: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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