Rethinking the Design of Markets: The Case of Ho Central Market

In the wake of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become profoundly obvious that, the way we live as a people, cannot remain the same, even after we’ve surmounted the challenge; found a vaccine and a cure for the disease. As a people we shall have to modify our personal lives, with lessons from the current global human catastrophe. Accordingly, we would have to reconsider the way our communities are structured and managed. Something really have to change, to minimise the risk of any future disease outbreak.

Rapid urbanisation and the attendant instant exploding population of towns and cities, without the reciprocal investments and expansion in public and social infrastructure ie markets, hospitals, schools etc, cannot be underestimated in our appreciation of the COVID-19 crisis, and strategies to preempt the impact of a similar catastrophe in future.

I’d use the Ho Central Market as a case study, without bothering you with the arcane and boring science of statistics. I was barely 7 years old, maybe 8, when the Ho Central Market was moved from the Civic Centre and Anlokordzi area to its current location. At the time, Ho Dome was a travel distance to the the Mortar Barracks. The distance from the Dome St Cecilia Catholic Church, all the way to the Barracks, was a farmland. There were no houses beyond the Barracks.

Fast forward, I’m now in my 50s and the size of Ho Central Market remain the same, while the hitherto isolated Mortar Barracks (now 66 Artillery Regiment) is in the middle of human habitation. The car journey between Ho and neighbouring towns, Kpenoe, Sokode, Taviefe Deme, Adaklu Kodzobi etc, have been filled with concrete and mortar, inhabited by humans. All the farmlands have metamorphosed into homes. The population of Ho has more than quadrupled over the years, but the size of the Ho Central market remain the same.

Now, let’s consider some of the things we can do differently, with lessons from COVID-19.

(i) The concept of satellite and small community markets must be aggressively pursued as a national policy. We have closed schools, churches and all big social gatherings, to prevent the spread of the #coronavirus. However, our markets, as they are designed currently, are breaking at their seams, with thousands of people, with potential healthy COVID-19 carriers, busily spreading the virus to many without even knowing. Closing down Ho Central Market, remain a difficult conundrum any public officer will have to contend with. The implications of such an act on the lives of citizens, would be extremely dire. It’s time we develop a policy that keeps the urban population away from the centre (centrifugal strategy), by investing in the small community infrastructure and sensitisation of the citizenry in that regard.

(ii) The shopping mall/ small grocery shop concept is one that we can consider. Our people have not socially evolved to patronise the small community green grocer or malls in the same manner they do the big central markets, where we hassle, bargain over prices and sometimes buy on credit from our favorite market women. This is how we have socialised for centuries.

The market means more than a hub for commercial activity for many. Indeed, if you want to hear the latest news or gossip from your village, just visit Ho Central Market today (market day). You’d surely meet your auntie or just somebody with all the fresh filla.

Let’s all think about some of these, as we put our efforts together, to mitigate the spread of the #coronavirus in our towns, villages and homes.

Source: George Kwaku Yeboah, Contributor II ghananewsonline.com.gh