•Three regions Ashanti, Volta and Upper East regions have been the worse hit regions in the country during the lockdown in 2020
•Post lockdown period indicates however that there are far more agribusiness firms that remain closed in the Greater Accra Region than in the Ashanti Region
•The negative impact of Ghana’s partial lockdown affected all the 16 regions of Ghana but three regions that stood out were Ashanti Region, Volta Region and Upper East Region
Three agrarian regions in Ghana were badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic during the partial lockdown in 2020, this is according to a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It explained that the three regions combined had more than one-fifth of agribusiness closed down during the May 2020 lockdown.
According to a report by 3news sighted by GhanaWeb, it noted that in the Ashanti Region, 21.2% of agribusiness firms were closed due to lockdown; whereas in the Volta Region 26.9% of firms were affected. In the Upper East Region, 25.5% of agriculture businesses were hard hit by the pandemic.
“The Upper East and Volta Regions are border towns and the lockdown affected the borders so a lot of inputs did not come through as expected. Another reason for the large impact on these two regions is that, If I get my inputs in Accra and Accra is closed down, it affects my business. The regions have pass-through effects on another region”, Praise Nutakor, Head of Communications at the United Nations Development Programme( UNDP) cited.
The lockdown was implemented in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions but agribusiness firms in the Greater Accra Region were less affected than their counterpart in the Ashanti Region.
The post-lockdown period indicates however that there are far more agribusiness firms that remain closed in the Greater Accra Region than in the Ashanti Region.
The report which was put together by the Ghana Statistical Service, the United Nations Development Programme and GIZ looked at the agribusiness situation that existed before the lockdown, during the lockdown and post-lockdown from 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Meanwhile, the report cited that overall, about 20.9 % of agribusiness firms nationwide were closed during the lockdown. Also, an estimated 16,091 representing 11.6 percent of agribusiness closed due to the lockdown still remain closed after lifting of the lockdown. Service-related businesses were most affected.
However, the negative impact of Ghana’s partial lockdown affected all the 16 regions of Ghana but three regions that stood out were Ashanti Region, Volta Region and Upper East Region.
Interestingly, apart from the Ashanti Region, the remaining two regions; Volta and Upper East did not experience lockdown.