They come in various sizes, designs, and volumes. In the majority, they are dailies.
Unlike in Cameroon, they are affordable, very affordable, to the average reader. A sure indication of the level of freedom of information
Ghana is a free society. A free, open and democratic one for that matter.
Proof positive is the fact that current President, Akoffo Addo who was democratically elected in 2016, is the 7th President to lead Ghana since independence.
Proof positive too is the level of plurality of sources of information in Ghana.
The plurality is not a question of number of registered newspapers, radio and television stations, but in its affordability.
For of what earthly use is it for newspapers to be published on a daily basis when readers cannot afford the cost?
In Ghana, newspapers are available at every street corner, every bus stop, every joint, and more importantly, every shopping mall.
The shopping malls are not in short supply. It’s the exception rather than the rule to find a weekly newspaper here.
Mostly dailies. Their pages range from anything between 24 to 38 pages. Full blown color. Beautifully designed and packaged.
Newspaper prices are not only low but it would appear they are standard.
Not to bore you with the gymnastics of Ghana Cedis, a 32-38 pages newspaper in Ghana would cost you anything around 200 FCFA. An avid reader like me would not go for one.
Four or five would be the least. Not just because they are cheap but because they are reach in content.
The four favorite newspapers I select to buy per day would cost my 10 cedis, an equivalent of 1200 FCFA.
That’s how cheap and affordable access to information in Ghana is. But not same for food.
A plate of food for an average modest visitor like me would cost anything around 10 cedis, an amount that would have enabled me procure four Ghanaian national newspapers.
Despite this, newspaper business is by African standards, a flourishing business in Ghana.
Proof positive is that just last week, newspapers reported a landmark judgment handed down by the Accra High Court to a newspaper vendor of New Times for swindling hundreds of millions of newspaper sales of New Tens as well as the vendor’s inability to produce unsold.
Although the vendor pleaded that he used the money to pay for his university education as well as acquire a modest home for his family, as if he tell the court he did not squander the money, the learned judge concluded he must serve a five years prison sentence because he misused public funds and that his job contract did not include him using newspaper money to further his education.
View of visiting Cameroonian journalist Colbert Gwain Fulai to Ghana