THE WOES OF THE MARKET WOMAN
THE WOES OF THE
MARKET WOMAN
In our innocence, we
were born into poverty;
In our
unconsciousness we accepted our status of defeat;
In our upbringing, we
were told to accept our state of life.
These are the woes of
the market woman in Africa.
In Africa, we have ‘big
men’ but ‘tiny systems’.
We are less developed
yet loud mouths of unfulfilled promises.
This has resulted in the woes of the market
woman.
Poverty has a way of crippling individuals both the learned
and unlearned. With the learned, poverty develops the attitude of ‘Crabology’
and with the unlearned ‘let’s accept our fate’.
This little piece is to bring to light the failures of our
leaders and the neglect of the market woman.
There is nothing wrong with Africa, rather failed,
irresponsible, ungodly and undeveloped leaders.
After speaking to
Auntie Mansa at Makola (A market in Ghana) and listening to her plights left me
troubled. Auntie Mansa vends vegetables in the market. She has been in this
trade for about 40 years and she is about approaching 60 years. According to
her, she earns about 20 Ghana cedis a day and on very poor market days she ends
even less than 7 Ghana cedis. Out of this she has to daily pay market gate fees
for about 5 Ghana cedis, 5 Ghana cedis for meals, part for rent and the rest for
little savings and emergencies.
In this light, we can realize that Auntie Mansa earns very
little. Very soon, she will be approaching 60 years and because of ill-health
she will be out of business. There is no package for retirement for her, except
for the little ‘peanuts’ from her savings.
I want to draw your attention that, the government does not
make any provision after retirements for people in the informal sector who are
taxed and levied daily. The informal sector contributes more to the economy. They
earn very little yet contribute to the formal sectors who do not even care
about their well being.
WHAT RETIREMENT PACKAGE DOES THE GOVERNMENT HAS IN STORE FOR
CITIZENS IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR?
President, The Central Focus
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