Coronavirus: Funeral homes incur loss after public gathering ban

Funeral homes and organisers in the country are taking a hit from the ban on social gatherings imposed by government as a measure to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

President Akufo-Addo in an address to the nation on Sunday night announced a suspension of public gatherings including funerals for the next four weeks. The suspension however permits private burials but with limited numbers not exceeding 25 persons in attendance.

Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, the Managing Director of Abbey Caskets and Funeral Services, Emmanuel Abbey said that his business is already feeling the impact of the ban in its first week, as clients who had their relatives funerals scheduled for this weekend are calling in to cancel.

“People are cancelling their funerals. Within this period, this weekend all funerals that we have has been cancelled and then again up to April all the funerals that we have scheduled is all cancelled and that is quite serious. It is affecting us. We are in business for money and we need to take care of our staff and other things,” he said.

Mr Abbey revealed to www.ghanaweb.com that his service outlets have already had three out of five funerals cancelled by clients with the fate of the remaining two yet to be decided on.

He however stressed that with the gravity of the current situation, he supports the decision by the government as the ban is imperative to guard public safety.

“I agree with the president’s order because seriously judging from what is happening outside Ghana, it’s quite a serious issue, it’s quite scary. So, there is the need to limit social gatherings and so if the president says that, that is quite true. However, it’s impacting negatively on our operations. But it is to safeguard all of us.”

He mentioned that the problem of having rescheduled funerals clashing with others already scheduled outside the suspension period is another issue his outfit is being faced with. He predicted that this is likely to cause chaos and therefore appealed to clients to work with funeral homes and organisers to find a common ground that will benefit all parties.

Speaking on the effects of the ban on his employees, the Managing Director said with the look of things there is the likelihood of employee remunerations getting affected.

“Weekly we arrange funerals and based on what we get, the revenue is what we use in enhancing our services and then remunerations. So certainly, it’s going to affect staff remunerations. We may cut down on salaries to be able to run the business until this pandemic is over. I know staff will grumble but the question is we want to stay alive. So the little that we have, we will ration it until we are back to full business where our revenue can meet the staff that we have,” he concluded.