THE President of Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng, has mainatained that the ban on retail business by foreigners must be enforced, saying that foreign retailers have found a loophole in the country’s retail laws and are capitalising on that.
He threatened that the union will not sit down and watch the foreigners to take over Ghana market, asserted that it is failed as a country to preserve what to Ghanaians.
Shops owned by Nigerians were locked up by Ghanaian traders at the popular electronic market in the central business district of Accra yesterday.
The latest incident comes few days after the Ghanaian Parliament threw its weight around the traders, insisting that foreigners must be barred from retail business in the country.
The traders leader in his words said, “These foreign retailers have found a loophole in our retail laws and are capitalising on that. We have failed as a country to preserve what to Ghanaians. We will not sit down and watch them take over our market. We don’t hate Nigerians. We just want the laws to work,”
The angry traders had on Monday attacked Nigerian traders and sealed up their shops. But some Nigerian traders resisted them, which resulted in a brawl, before the police took control of the situation.
Subsequently, the leadership of Ghana Union of Traders and executives of Nigeria Union of Traders Association in Ghana (NUTAG) were invited by the Accra Regional Police Force in order to mediate in the matter.
“Measures have been put in place to ensure sanity prevails. We have also invited both parties to work out the best ways to resolve the matter before it escalates,” the Accra Regional Operations Officer of the Ghana Police, Chief Superintendent Kwasi Ofori said.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Nigerian traders at Opera Square have been assaulted by members of the Ghana Electrical Dealers Association (GEDA).
The last incident happened in June, when about 20 shops owned by Nigerians were locked up by GEDA members.
The dispute was swiftly resolved and the shops were opened about 48 hours later.
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