Ghanaians consume more alcohol to get over increasing economic hardships
The slowdown of the Ghanaian economy is fueling an increase in volume of sales of alcoholic beverages as consumers shift their spending to discretionary items, according to Lampe Omoyele, Managing Director of Nielsen West Africa. Nielsen is a global information and measurement company with headquarters in New York (USA). Nielsen is active in over 100 countries and employs approximately 40,000 people worldwide.
Omoyele argues that most Ghanaians at the peak of the economic challenges resorted to alcohol as a way of dealing with their economic challenge.
Globally it’s been seen that during economic challenges, people turn to look for escape and alcohol is one of the routes of escape. But one of the things that we also find is that during the period of economic challenges in Ghana, people resorted to alcohol. The story is same in Nigeria.
The growth of alcoholic beverages in quarter one of 2015 has been driven by Origin, and it is because of the innovation that we see that growth.”
It is clear that both the high end and average consumers all resort to taking of alcohol as a means to solving problems they encounter.