By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Ghana’s forest risks further depletion with the prices of charcoal and firewood increasing in Accra, a lower-middle-income earning region, amid reduction in consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) observed that the solid fuel (charcoal and firewood) component of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels of Non-Food inflation recorded a figure in excess of 47 percent.
Experts, from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Industry, and Academia, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, attributed the price hike in charcoal and firewood to both demand and supply factors.
They said demand in the commodity was far outstripping supply, transport related cost in carting the commodity from the backwoods to Accra, and reduction in LPG consumption were the major factors.
The Head of Price Statistics at GSS, Mr John Agyaho, said though the Service had not done a study into the causes yet, it could “theoretically suggest that there is increase in demand [for charcoal and firewood] more than the supply can meet. So, people are taking advantage of it to increase the prices.”
He added that: “It could equally be that transport cost has increased…it could also be that LPG is expensive.”
Mr Ralph Dedi, Vice President of the Ghana LPG Retailers Association, said: “Consumers are not able to fill their cylinders. When they come, they buy GH₵10 or GH₵20 instead of filling the cylinder, which is now sold for an average of GH₵120, far beyond the average man’s pocket.”
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