This post is follows on from my previous discussions on the street hawking industry. There, I discussed street hawking in general. In this post, I ask the question, why? but I do not have conclusive answers. Instead, we would take a look at both sides of the argument and try to point out the merits and demerits.
It is obvious that this phenomenon is occurring due to the unavailability of jobs to engage these youths in, who are mostly migrants from the rural parts of the nation. Therefore one can argue that these hawkers by selling are generating incomes for themselves. Again by selling their wares they serve as distributors for the big companies, whose products they are selling thereby enabling these products to be sold faster at a larger market. By this they stimulate the economy of the nation. Let’s take an example; the hawkers who sell golden tree chocolate, which is made in Ghana, are serving as a large network for the patronage of chocolate, which in turn should bring the desired profit for this company to make it viable. This would not have been the case if these products were sitting in shops. In a nutshell, one can argue that these hawkers help in selling products at a faster rate and thereby encourage the exchange of money, which in turn benefits themselves and the companies whose products they are selling.
Some companies have seen this to be a very useful tool to sell their products to the extent that these companies have engaged the services of hawkers. It is a common sight to see these companies especially the beverage, telecommunication and music industry hire the hawkers in vans and trucks selling the products accompanied by loud music all in a bid to draw the attention of people to buy their products.
On the flip side however some genuine concerns can be raised about the propriety of the services they offer. These concerns range from their own personal safety, the safety and hygiene of the goods they sell especially foods, fruits and beverages that are exposed to the sun, the quality of products they sell and last but not the least the traffic they contribute to.
Clearly if you interview most of these hawkers they will tell you what they do is not really their choice of work but they have no option than to do that in order to live a decent life and possibly use these monies to further their education.
Whichever way you choose to call it whether a novelty or nuisance their activities are symptomatic of the challenges we face as a nation. Our in-abilities to get many young people have a formal education, the inability of government over the years to create avenues for better utilizing the energies of the youth have left them in a state of despair. However some hawkers have on the contrary risen from this hardship to establish some of the big business we have in this country.
Clearly the solution to this problem lies in this nation undergoing its own industrial age, an age we are yet to go through. Obviously if we can’t setup industries to produce goods and products we need, with the hands and energies of these youth, then these same hands and energies would help sell these products that are imported to help serve as a distribution chain for these foreign companies. As the politician, Nana Akomea always likes to say; “We are a Nation of shopkeepers”. If we cannot industrialize our economy this situation would be with us for a long time to come.
I was one of those who thought their activities were a complete nuisance on the roads and that they should be taken off the streets immediately, I was particularly riled by passengers who bought their wares since I felt that if passengers refused to buy from them they will stop selling on the streets. But the passion of the hawkers got me thinking. What was this passion? The passion with which they sold their wares, these hawkers are prepared to chase cars for as long as one hundred meters or more just to sell an item for as low as one cedi and even less depending on what they sold I vividly remember how one such hawker chased our vehicle for more than hundred meters to sell peanut for a total price of one cedi twenty pesewa.
In a country where customer service is very poor you can’t help but wonder is this, what someone is prepared to go through to have a decent living? Events such as these have over the years soften my stands on these hawker who could have all resorted to criminal activities to earn a living. Also one can say that the services provide by this “highway supermarket” is very convenient, as it saves you time you would have spent pulling over at a supermarket to get your groceries.