Rwandan government fines traders who keep increasing food prices Against government directives

Since the advent of Coronavirus, there have been high demand for basic necessities, especially food products. People buy as many as they can afford with others purchasing more to store in order to survive during the period they are supposed to stay home.

Due to this consumer behavior, the ever proactive Rwandan government foresaw a looming price hike and food hoarding and warned against it. The Ministry for trade and industry issued a directive instructing traders to maintain prices they had prior to the outbreak and also warned consumers to refrain from buying more than they will need and hoarding them to create shortage. They also attached punishments in case of any violation.

Additionally, a team was deployed by the Ministry for Trade and Industry to go round and inspect the prices at regular intervals and report the deviants for punishment.

Despite all these measures, some traders were not perturbed. They took undue advantage of the increasing demands to multiply their profit by skyrocketing prices of products against the initial warning by the government to revoke business licenses, fine or close down shops of culprits.

A report from the monitoring team revealed names of some traders who still exploit consumers with high prices. In a bid to enforce the punitive measures attached to this directive, Minister for trade and industry, Soraya M. Hakuziyaremye has fined 108 traders and counting.

Do you think Ghana should equally adopt this measures following the recent unreasonable increase in prices of products?