Some traders at the New Kumasi Kejetia market have bemoaned the impact of the closure of the market for repair works on their business and their daily lives.
The traders whose shops were not affected during last week’s fire outbreak at the market but have been asked to close their shops for repair works to be carried out are appealing to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and management of the market to find them a place to keep their goods to enable them continue doing their business.
Some of the traders who spoke to Class 91.3 FM’s Ashanti regional correspondent, Elisha Adarkwah, on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, bemoaned the impact of the closure on their daily lives as trading at the market is their source of livelihood.
A male trader, said: “This will create lots of problems. They say, ‘Close your shop’. Where are you going to put your wares and you know here in Ghana too, it’s hand to mouth.”
“Every day you must come and sell before you can get your daily bread, so we plead with them to open the place for us, so we can work.”
A female trader noted that: “When you wake up and you don’t come to the market, it’s not easy and now they’re asking us to close down. Now where to even keep the wares is a headache. Where are we taking them? That’s what we’re thinking about now.”
Another trader who revealed she lived far away from the market wondered how the authorities were expecting her to move her goods from the shop.
“They must give us a place since they’re insisting we remove our goods and wares. Where I live is far; I live at Aputuogya. How am I going to put these goods into a vehicle to Aputuogya?
“They must give us a place to sell, or give us time. How about those of us who are mothers, how are we going to feed our children? How can we all be paying for one person’s mistake?” he quizzed.
However, some other traders lauded the decision of the authorities to close the market in order for repair works to be carried out.
A female trader stated: “It is not good that we keep selling here. Nobody has opened their shop today. They’re all sitting there, so it’s good that they want work here, but they need to be fast about it so we can return.”
Another female trader also said: “They should close this place and fix the place for us. I can’t come and sit here to sell my goods. It’s scary looking over there. I feel like the building is going to collapse, so, yes, they should work on the place for us, however, they must do it quickly.”
Source: clas