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Some traders who were relocated from the old Kumasi Central Market are piling pressure on the government to complete the second phase of the Kejetia Market.
The leadership of the Combined Kumasi Central Market Traders Union at a press conference on Tuesday questioned why work has stalled for months despite assurances by the government to complete the project on schedule.
President Nana Akufo-Addo in May 2019 cut the sod for the commencement of phase two of the redevelopment project and the provision of associated infrastructure. The redevelopment of the market is expected to be completed by June 2024.
But the project risks further delay due to the government’s ongoing debt exchange programme. This development does not sit well with the traders who have been relocated to the Kumasi racecourse say their hopes have been dashed.
“We all observed how the military was released upon us,” leader of the traders Emelia Kwoffie recounted at a press conference Tuesday.
She continued: “To them, the traders had to vacate the area immediately. Immediately because the funding of the construction was in and any delay would mean the hot cash would have to be withdrawn and that would mean that it was going to affect the construction and the completion of the market.”
“After December 2022, work on this project has come to a standstill. No sound of machines is at the site. The total reduction of the workforce means no major work is being done from January 2023 to March 2023”, the leader of the group Emelia Kwoffie said at a press conference.
Kwoffie also called out MPs in the Ashanti Region questioning their loud silence over the development.
“NDC under former president John Mahama constructed phase one of the Kejetia end. The NPP under President Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo has also started phase two but when it would be completed is unknown because of the stoppage of the work.
We are calling on Ashanti Regional parliamentary members, especially Hon Kwasi Konadu (Manhyia North MP), Hon Asenso Boakye (Bantama MP), Hon Matthew Opoku Prempeh (Manhyia South MP), Hon Muntaka Mohammed (Asawasi MP), Hon Eugene Boakye Antwi (Subin MP) on whose area and borders of constituencies the project is being sited. We are asking why the halt in the project execution because as we were told, the funding is at the Bank of Ghana and work should begin soon.
We are therefore calling on the NPP as a party and government in power to treat this our calling as their major concern because their political holding unto power rest on these market traders”, she indicated.
“We will not stop our members to organize a series of demonstrations if nothing is heard within the shortest possible time”, Kwoffie warned.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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