Ghanaian media personality Bernard Avle, host of the morning show on Citi 97.3 FM, has called on Ghanaian religious leaders to use the Easter period to educate their congregations about the sins of extreme greed or avarice.
Avle, speaking on the Friday, April 11 edition of the show, said religious leaders – including Islamic religious leaders who just marked the Eid – should drum into the heads of their followers that cheating other people to make money is a sin and not good.
The panel were discussing the unjustifiably high prices of goods in the country when Avle appealed to religious leaders to drum that behaviour out of their congregants.
“I want to urge other radio presenters and pastors and imams to do a discussion about greed in the month of April,” Avle said. “They should preach about wickedness, selfishness, greed, profiteering, and that these are evil behaviours. They shouldn’t preach that when you make money, can you give it to us as tithes? They should stop letting people believe that God will bless you if you cheat people and come and pay him an offering.”
Avle said one big problem in Ghanaian society relates to the fact that Ghanaians largely interpret using unethical means to amass wealth as ‘blessings’, when in fact it is simply cheating and a sin in the eyes of the Lord.
“I think that part of our problem in society is that we have a very warped mindset about even what blessing is. And we are basically innately just greedy and selfish. And our our religious sermons have not helped to change that. They’ve probably worsened it,” he continued.
The veteran journalist called on market women and other sellers in the country to desist from being greedy and selfish and engaging in price gouging. He said religious leaders should emphasise that when you engage in such activities, you are headed straight for hell!
Avle’s comments come as the prices of foodstuffs and the general cost of living continue to skyrocket in Ghana, pushing more and more Ghanaians into poverty. Economic mismanagement of the past few years exacerbated the issue, with a high watermark of inflation hitting 54% in December 2022. Despite some relief in recent months, inflation remains high, with a mark of 22.4% in March 2025, down from 23.10% in February.
Despite the larger drivers of inflation, there remains a firm belief that traders constantly play their part by engaging in price gouging under the cover of inflation.
