Ghana’s consumer purchasing power is one of the lowest in Sub Saharan Africa.
This is according to the managing director of Nielsen West Africa, Lampe Omoyele.
According to Mr. Omoyele, increasing inflation, cedi depreciation and taxes among others have reduced spending of the Ghanaian consumer.
Mr. Omoyele argued that Ghanaian consumers are redefining their value using switch, swap and squeezing.
“When there is inflation, when wages do not increase to correspond then consumers disposable income will decline. Ghana’s inflation has increase significantly in the last 24 months from 14% to over 18% in 2016,” he said.
He pointed out that the country has also faced some challenges such as commodity price increase, supply issues, and infrastructure issues while wages have not improved, resulting in weakened consumer purchasing power.
“When that happens then consumers begin to rationalize. This means they don’t have enough money to spend and they rationalize by doing away with some of the things they feel are not important,” he said.
He made these remarks during Citi Fm’s collaboration with the Chartered Instituted of Marketing Ghana as part of Citi Business Festival on the topic “Winning With the Consumer and the Shopper” at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra.
He stated that though the Ghanaian economy is on the road to recovery, brands that will survive or stay in competition are those that will be able to provide the needs of the consumer.
In outlining what sales and marketing personnel should be doing to remain competitive, Mr. Omoyele said marketing and sales personnel should ensure that they give value for money.
“They must ensure that they give value for money, be trust worthy and also, affordability is important. Understand the consumer needs and desire, and constantly engage them through available media platforms and also ensure that their products are available in the relevant stores, plus being visible at the right places so their products can be purchased,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Kojo Mattah speaking during the programme said ” hawkers drive visibility but they are complementary”, he said, asking marketing and sales personnel to ignore their customers.