Traders at the two central markets in the Obuasi Municipality of the Ashanti Region are calling on authorities to hasten processes to reopen the markets after they were shut down to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The closures were as a result of the traders’ failure to comply with social distancing protocols.
According to the data from the Ghana Health Service, Obuasi leads in the number of COVID-19 cases recorded in the Ashanti Region.
Traders at the two markets, especially those who deal in perishable goods, say they are incurring significant losses.
One of the traders in a Citi News interview said, “Our [products] are in and they’ve been parked at Tutuka. The mangoes that were brought on Thursday have all gone bad so much so that we had to throw them away. We are therefore pleading with Authorities to please do something about for us and we promise to obey all their directives. They can impose a total lockdown on us if we don’t abide by the new measures.”
Another trader also said, “I sell yam and my tubers of yam are getting spoilt. We were in the market when they came to inform us that the markets have been shut down without giving us a date to leave. Some of us are working with bank loans. So we are therefore pleading with authorities to allow us to sell so we can pay back the bank loans.”
The Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi, Elijah Adansi-Bonah, reacting to the issue, said the authorities will reopen the markets on Thursday, August 6, 2020, if all market leaders agree to comply with the new arrangements put in place.
“We are reopening the market Thursday on the condition that we will be able to engage the last two groups of the market leaders to agree with what we will put before them. We’ve designed cards for them with which the traders will be coming to the markets with and we will make sure they comply with that,” he said.
The post Obuasi: Traders call for reopening of markets, pledge to abide by COVID-19 protocols appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS