Correspondence from Eastern Region:
Residents in Koforidua claim most of their new year resolutions for the year 2020 got crashed by the novel coronavirus (covid-19) which broke out in the country in March 2020.
They said all the plans they had and hoped to achieve in their businesses, spiritual and personal lives as well as their academics to enhance their status in life succumbed to the coronavirus.
"For me as a business person with regard to stationery, I was expecting to get a lot more sales during the peak season which is September and October when schools reopen.
"Like I said initially, the plans were great hoping for more sales but coronavirus also had its plans. So, when it came in, the government had to shut down all schools. So there was no season for us. That has done a great deal against us as business people in the stationery business.
"We are hoping for the best. On 31st December 2020 the President will be speaking again and we are hoping schools reopen so we can make more sales. As a businessman I don't need anything better than sales, so that is we are hoping for," Forster Agbobafah, a stationery seller said.
Another resident, Belinda Agbesi Watson, who is a student nurse and a trader of African jewelry, expressed disappointment in 2020 saying due to the covid-19, most foreigners did not come down into the country to patronize her products.
"This year most of my plans got crashed due to the covid-19. I'm a student but for covid-19, I would have advanced in my academic level but the covid-19 has retrogressed my schooling. We are hoping that things will normalise so that I go back to school.
According to Belinda, she is praying fervently to see the coronavirus vanish from the world so that business would start booming for her.
Eric Nartey, carpenter based in Koforidua also disclosed that coronavirus erased the need for furniture in the minds of his customers since they were mostly indoors and thinking more about feeding than buying furniture.
"Business did not go on that much. At the beginning of the year, sale was good but when the disease broke, the person did not want to go out. His thoughts were all on food. What will they do with furniture? So, it made our business dwindle. It really affected us my brother," he told Ghanaweb.
Eric Nartey expressed hope that the coronavirus would normalise in 2021 for business to enhance so that he can make income to cater for his family and to pay taxes towards national development.
An evangelist, Isaac Anderson, also averred that the year 2020 came with a huge surprise that hampered the attainment of the year's resolutions.
He expressed confidence that 2021 would be a better year and described it as a "packed year" since he has deferred his stagnated 2020 resolutions to add onto those for 2021.
Some of the residents, however, expressed with joy that they were able to achieve their set target despite the Covid-19.
"I was able to achieve my target. I planned to work to get money to buy a stuffing chair. By the grace of God before the end of 2020, I have been able to sell, made the money, and bought it. For me I think everything went on well. I was able to achieve my dream. My target in 2021 is to build my house and so I pray that just as all went well for me in 2020, I can make good sales to get money for it," Auntie Abena, a trader who hawks with second-hand dresses told GhanaWeb.
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