About 50 Nigerian shops has been locked up by Ghanaian traders at Opera Square in Accra on Monday.
According to report, this is the third time Nigerians has experienced such an incident at the same venue whereby their shops are being padlocked by the members of GUTA.
Confirming the incident, The President Of Nigerian Union Of Traders Association, Ghana, Chukwuemeka Nnaji said that the union is unsure of how many shops that were affected but maintained that over 50 Nigerian shops were locked up by Ghanaian traders.
“According to what I heard, over 50…maybe less. We are not sure,” he said
The Ghanaian traders said the activities of the foreign nationals contravene Section 27 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 865. The law bars foreign nationals from:
1. the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place
2. the operation of taxi or car hire service in an enterprise that has a fleet of less than twenty-five vehicles;
3. the operation of a beauty salon or a barbershop;
4. the printing of recharge scratch cards for the use of subscribers of telecommunication services; e. the production of exercise books and other basic stationery;
5. the retail of finished pharmaceutical products;
6. the production, supply and retail of sachet water; and
7. all aspects of pool betting business and lotteries, except football pool.
The traders say they are forced to carry out the operations following the government’s failure to enforce the GIPC laws.
“If police will not do it, we will do it ourselves,” said one of the traders. “It has been many years since we started this activity, the Police is not willing to help us. So we have to help ourselves, protect our laws.”
Reports has it that several shops belonging to Nigerian were locked up in at least five markets in Kumasi by members of GUTA in the last four days.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Albert Offei, had told Joy News last Thursday the action would soon be extended to other parts of the country.