Traders want AMA to maintain order in markets
The Novotel Market Traders Association has urged the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to enforce its bye-laws to the letter to maintain orderliness in the markets.
This they say would help in generating revenue for development.
The traders said the AMA and its decentralized departments were mandated to formulate and execute development plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilization of resources necessary for the overall development of the Metropolis.
Miss Bernice Otoo, President of the Association, made this assertion in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and noted that the absence of parking space had had negative impact on traders, residents and customers, which is affecting generation of resources.
“Currently the only space for car park for the Odawna Market is being occupied by hawkers and some traders, who have left their stalls, creating congestion and preventing the trucks, which bring goods into the market from entering,” she stated.
She said the non-compliance of the bye-laws by the traders, who had occupied the parks and pavements, were negatively affecting the level of patronage, sales and profit and generation of revenue and also seriously creating waste management problems.
Miss Otoo said: “The Assembly stands to gain financially if all spaces in the deserted market are fully utilised for the purpose for which they were earmarked.”
She said the authorities should seriously check the menace of unauthorized development of hawkers, who did their trading activities on roads and public spaces in the area, and also provide the Odawna market with Lorry Park.
“We believe that the provision of a car park at the market would be in consistent with the Legislative Instrument of the Local Government Act,” Miss Otoo stressed.
She said the Association had sought financial support from the Business Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund to carry out education to ensure an improved business environment for traders at Odawna market.
When contacted by the GNA on the issue, Mr Mohammed Norgah, Chairman, Korle Klottey Sub-Metropolitan Assembly said, plans were in the offing to send those traders back into the Odawna market.
Source: GNA