Accra Central ‘deserted’ on Christmas Day as usual heavy traffic peters out

The usually busy Central Business District of Accra was on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, a pale shadow of itself.

The boisterous activities that characterise this part of Ghana’s capital on any day, including the days leading up to Christmas Day, were all missing.

The streets looked deserted, with only a fraction of the commercial activities concentrated in the Kantamanto (Okaishie) area when Graphic Online visited to guage what had become of the milling crowd on Tuesday that had seemed to be going nowhere.

Indeed there was hardly a free space for even a foot, with traders, shoppers as well as drivers and their mates haggling over each other on Tuesday.

But on Wednesday, some traders who spoke to Graphic Online said, sales had overnight been slow as there were only a few people in the market.

A tomato seller who identified herself only as Adutwumwaa, said she was in to sell what she could on Christmas Day because the church she attends does not observe Christmas. And she would do business any day church activities do not take her away.

A disappointed Akwasi Antwi, also a trader in gents’ shirts, said sales were better on previous days, explaining that he had thought he could make more sales given that a lot of his colleague sellers were staying at home or travelling to make merry.

“Merepon aa no no”, (I’m just closing shop), he said in Twi as he bagged his wares in disappointment.