Accra Gears Up For Christmas

HIPC or no HIPC, the nation's capital is getting ready to splash this Christmas.

Yesterday, the city authorities kicked off with the unveiling of a special Christmas tree at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. To coincide with the festive occasion, the normally silent fountain at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle also sprung to life splashing cheerfully, or did it? (The well was being filled at the time of going to press). Last year the Christmas season was interrupted" by the inconclusive first round of the General Elections.

People simply lost the appetite for any festivities as they awaited the outcome of the second round of voting which had been scheduled by the Electoral Commission three days after Christmas 2000.

The tension in the country was so high that supporters of the main competitors, the NPP and NDC, concentrated all their energies on the run-off to the exclusion of all else.

The NPP won, and one of the very first policy decisions the new government took in early 2001 was to allow Ghana join the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Much public debate ensued before and after the official announcement and the word HIPC has assumed a life of its own. To be HIPC is to be impecunious. Less charitable people are more cynical than that, and have associated HIPC with forced or imposed poverty.

Though this year's Christmas in no worse than other Christmases of recent memory, and even in certain respects better, it is being referred to in certain quarters as a HIPC Christmas, almost as if Ghanaians are so impecunious that they cannot celebrate the yuletide.

The reality on the ground is however different. In an Accra Mail survey early this week, it was discovered that prices are stable and the markets brimming over with all manner of Christmas goodies. Public confidence in Christmas itself has not dimmed and indeed, people are actually looking forward to the Christmas break. Office Christmas and end of year parties are being organised as usual across the thousands of offices across the capital. A sign that HIPC or no HIPC, life is going on in Christmas 2001, very much like any other Christmas.

Perhaps what is scarce this Christmas is excess liquidity. The government's tight fiscal policies within the year, has brought inflation down, and with it "indiscretionary" cash floating about.

What this means is that people are having to be more careful than usual about where to put their cash.

So, as the Christmas tree lights up the fountain at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, hopes will be rekindled about the optimistic portends of the second year of Ghana under HIPC.

We have for you a guide highlighting some of the best of the Capital courtesy of the Accra Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB).

Have a very Merry Christmas and an even better New Year.