Activities at most bus terminals in Accra is not as brisk as expected after the yuletide, a visit by the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday has revealed.
At the Neoplan station, Circle, there was virtually no sign of passengers arriving from their hometowns after the festivities, whilst the number of those travelling out of Accra had dwindled.
A station attendant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said although business was not that bad, the days preceding the yuletide was very brisk compared to the arrivals.
He said there is always a high patronage every Christmas, with passengers’ queueing for very long hours before getting a bus to their destinations.
“You know this year’s Christmas and New Year fell on working days and we are expecting most revelers, majority of whom are workers, to be trooping in by now to start work but it is not going as anticipated,” he said.
The situation at the Opera Station, Tudu and Tema stations was not different, as business was also low with only few people arriving after the celebrations.
Most of the passengers told the GNA that, travelling out of Accra for the yuletide was very smooth this time around compared to previous years, and hoped the situation would always remain the same every Christmas to enable them to travel with ease.
Madam Emilia Adjei, a trader at the Tema station, said business was not that good with most people only doing window shopping, and hardly bought anything, adding that, it may be due to the just ended Christmas season.”
Meanwhile, the usual heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic, associated with the Christmas festivities along most principal streets of the capital was missing in most parts of the Central Business District.
Source: GNA
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Unfortunately, what people complained of last Christmas and life in general being hard under Akufo Addo may be true. I never got a penny dashed from the NDC during its reign and likewise under the NPP Kuffuor's time and now!! I wooorrrrked veeerrrryy hard to earn my living!! I am right now at home, just finished the company i own's budgeting and my own personal budgeting for 2018 and years beyond..short term, middle term, long term. It doesn't look good at all!!. Expenditure exceeds expected income. As usual! Because life is hard!! My company ended 2017 with a total tax debt or arrears of about 17,000 cedis. Thank God for the recently announced tax amnesty..then our debt can be paid off by July 2018 in monthly installments. Then, over the Christmas, I owed my kiosk lady around the corner 75 cedis, which went up by 125 cedis when I borrowed more to give a friend come begging .... but whilst there i learnt the kiosk lady had collapsed and was in hospital....sick from anxiety, pressure...... I noticed that her kiosk looked emptier than usual on the 27th December when I returned forlorn earlier from my office at 2pm. Why forlorn? Because my office lights have been cut as of that 27th December as we owe, so I stayed home 28th and 29th December working from home and did not go anywhere till the 2nd December. Thank God I had told my staff that we were reopening on 3rd January.!! That is how hard it is under Akufo Addo and the NPP. On a personal note, I never really checked prices of items in the past...i just buy and go, sometimes on credit...but, this year 2017 since January, the kiosk next-door where I make my purchases of provisions in bulk...sometimes up to 300 cedis at a go..sometimes on credit..the owner occasionally tells me....sorry Daddy, they have increased this and that price...and I respond..it doesn't matter...what is the grand total? But, thinking of it...hmmm..a toilet roll pack that I used to buy is now 12.50 instead of the previous 10 cedis...and the lady even does not stock my favourite toilet roll "Orange Toilet roll" as she says it is too expensive and her customers don't patronize it any more for that account! And just last week Friday I cleared six 1-litre packs of mango juice there, after not seeing such juice with her for some time and I asked her how is business. Her reply was that it has been bad since the beginning of the year 2017 and she had not replenished her stock for a while from her wholesalers. I see it to with my own eyes..the state of her business!! Other traders who I converse with in public transport both to and from woooorrrrkk say the same thing, likewise some traders I teach...one is into car dealing..importing...and on the side selling second hand clothes at Kantamanto, strong NPP supporters...all complain bitterly! I asked another student..they are all adults......NPP...who trades at Abossey Okai if anything had changed...he said at that time that things were hard! Today, I called him to ask if really prices had gone up on his spare parts...he did not pick up.....!!Others, NDC supporters gloat and say..I told you so..when I converse with them. Well, things have never been sweet under all the governments I have lived through...Acheampong, Akuffo, Rawlings, Limann, Rawlings' until 1988 then Rawlings again from 1998 till 2000...i travelled abroad in between...Kuffours time was hard..under Mills I suffered greatly but I at least opened my office and established a business, with employees, Mahama...hhhmmm..it was hard... So, for people to dream voting Nana Addo in will, for example, bring folls bale (obroniwawu) price down from 450 cedis to 150 cedis as the Kantamanto NPP traders said before the elections...hmmm...now they have long faces because it is now 650 cedis. Hey, everybody! Have prices ever reduced in GHANA? Never! Stop dreaming! Drivers are also complaining that fuel prices have not gone down, fisherfolk are complaining about premix...Hey...It has never been rosy oooh!