Prices of goods and services have increased sharply since the beginning of the pandemic.

And some say the situation is becoming unbearable.

Rising fuel and food prices are affecting all parts of society, including one man's local rice catering business are West Africa correspondent Nomsa Maseko went to meet him.

Mark in Primm owns a catering business.

I met up with him at the market, shopping for ingredients for one of his most popular dishes of rice.

So how have the increase in prices affected you Used to be 20 cities, but we are here to the market and the woman is telling me The price is going for 40 cities And you bought it for 20 cities last week, seven days ago and now it's double the price.

And has she explained why she got her name.

She went to the Markets buy and then the box that the box yes, formally, it was around 1200.

But she's telling me today it was 2500.

It's difficult for you to put together a budget.

It's markets like this one where consumers used to come to buy basic food items because they were much cheaper.

But now things have changed because food prices have more than doubled everywhere in just the last few weeks.

Please I will need oil.

25 m.

How much elijah.

What have you found yourself having to stop buying because of the prices.

I used to buy oil inbox.

But now I'm even struggling to buy one because I got other things here.

Um Maggie 12 13 cities, 18 cities now you understand everything the last time I got.

But yeah it's one of the spices I used in preparing my must be very difficult.

Very very baby rice which is fast becoming a staple is mainly imported from Asia.

But local wholesalers have been forced to cancel orders in recent months due to the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar In the first quarter of this year.

The c.

d.

devalued by 19% compared to just under 10% in 2018.

Early April Ghana's inflation shot up to its highest levels since 2019 and one of the driving forces of that has been the cost of buying fuel and that in turn has made transport even more expensive.

The amount that we used to buy the floor is too much for us.

So we are giving to you know the government to reduce the full form for us so that it can help us.

Yes.

Not only is he having to endure steep food prices but the rising cost of essentials has also been seen in the price of drinking water which has increased twice in four months.

Something water producers said was unavoidable.