Many business have been affected by the coronavirus due to the partial lockdown amongst others, and some businesses have been seen to be greatly affected, notably amongst these businesses are the Books and stationery businesses which perform a major role in our educational institutions.
Although their work is seasonal, the unexpected and continuous closure of schools, which recently saw final year students returning to school mainly to prepare for their exams, with the rest of the student body still at home has taken a different toll on their businesses because of their direct link with the educational institutions.
The bulk sale of books and stationery is mostly seasonal because such materials are largely patronized in bulk when schools reopen or are in session and now COVID 19 has changed the story.
Although owners of these bookshops have applied for government’s GHS 1billion Coronavirus Alleviation Program Support Scheme, which seeks to assist SMEs affected by the pandemic to stay in business, the delay, however, has made them concerned about how long it is taking for the loan to be disbursed.
In an interaction with the media some bookshop operators in the Central Business District of Accra, lamenting revealed that although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them due to the closure of many schools, other problematic local factors brought them down long before the pandemic and the lockdown hit hard, and this has to do with the change in the educational curriculum.
This they said resulted in some losses when the government changed the curriculums and this change came without books.
A sales executive complained that,
“And so, another problem emerged where the demand for the books was created, but whenever the people come, they don’t get the books. Our sales gradually began to drop,”.
He added that, they were anticipating that the government will bring its own books to compliment the change of curriculum since last academic year, but that didn’t happen. The publishers also tried to bring some books but they were not backed by the government. With reasons that, it was not up to date and told them to wait for something to be done but nothing has been done about it.
Another sales executive also said that their sales didn’t come in as they were supposed to because the government changed the textbooks and as a result, no new textbooks came, and most of the textbooks which came from publishers were unapproved. He also said, patronage was low, parents came looking for books to buy, but couldn’t get any, and that has really affected their sales including that of stationery because usually, parents buy the textbooks alongside the stationery for their wards.
The government’s three-week partial lock-down in March to curtail the spread of COVID-19, and the subsequent closure of schools, also meant that no books nor stationery items were needed as much.
Now that schools have reopened partially, which means only the final year students and gold track second-year students are in school, nothing has changed. Sometimes in a day, you can be here and barely sell to 50 people, and that is less than 20 per cent of what our usual sale was supposed to look like.
“Business here is basically seasonal, the season starts from August-September through to October, and during this time, business booms. Parents and students come along to buy a lot. But after the season, which starts from January, February, then the market starts going down. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, it came along with a lockdown so we were all at home with no business at all until we began to reopen after the government eased the restrictions but business has not stabilized” the sales executive bemoaned.
He further said although they have formalized procedures and are still waiting, the sooner the money comes the better because it could save the business which seems to be in a dire state.
