The Local Economies Tracker survey has revealed that localities witnessed an increase in crime during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown period.
The survey indicated that about three out of ten communities, representing 34.1 per cent experienced a rise in crime.
The Local Economies Tracker survey was conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2,770 communities and localities in the 16 regions of Ghana.
Presenting the COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker Wave 1 report, at the news conference in Accra, The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, classified the crimes into theft and burglary as the most common ones followed by domestic and assaults in that order.
The report also talked about negative economic impact on people as “about 72% and 80% of local businesses saw reduction in production and sales respectively. Businesses further faced labour shortage and high cost of credit during the lockdown
Prices of almost all products increased with food and non-alcoholic beverages experiencing the highest price increase of 4.8%”.
He said, however, most of these localities received support from the central Government and some members of parliament, “41.5% of lockdown localities received support from churches and 40.8% from philanthropists. Lockdown Districts received the most extensive assistance in comparison to the rest and food was the larger assistance received”.
The survey was conducted to assess the impact of the pandemic on the local economies. It took place from May to June, 2020. Out of the total number of localities surveyed, 554 of them were districts that were in lockdown areas, 1,169 were in districts that share international borders with other countries and 1,047 were neither in lockdown nor border districts.
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Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah
