The relocated traders from Takoradi Market Circle have called on the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly to expedite action on the construction of an extension of the market along the New Takoradi road.
This, they said, would ensure that all trading activities were centralized to increase patronage for the mutual benefits of stakeholders.
The traders who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) questioned why work on the market extension along the New Takoradi stretch had delayed.
They said, “some traders did not get a space in the temporary market when the STMA ejected us and were promised the extension, but it has been seven months and nothing seems to be happening.
“These traders are now selling around the market circle which is preventing customers from coming into this place”, they added.
Mr. Richard Ocran who corroborated the narration added that customers also complained about transportation to and from the market after shopping since there was no taxi rank and car parking space in the market.
He added, “The tricycles, which used to operate in the market have been stopped by city authorities…the market is not a highway, they were helping customers cart our goods and that of our customers, but city authorities have stopped them…when customers park their private cars too then they are locked by city authorities.”
Additionally, Mr. Ocran said a section of the traders were still allowed by the STMA to sell around the main market circle area.
With barely two Months to the Christmas festivities, most of the traders in the Metropolis expressed pessimism at cashing in on the Christmas season, saying the trend of patronage had not been encouraging.
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As of 1200 noon, Mr Ocran, a textiles seller, had not made any sales and lamented how relocating them to the new market had affected their sales coupled with increment in ground rent.
Some of them lamented that they could not re-stock their shops if the trend continued.
“By this time last year, the market had begun booming, but I cannot say same for this year. Maybe it is because of the construction of the new market circle”, Madam Helena Boah said.
Madam Beatrice Obo, a clothes and footwear seller, however was optimistic that sales would pick up in the coming weeks as it had been the case over the years.
Ms. Hannah Mensah, a customer who had come to buy clothes encouraged the Government to increase or cushion workers to be able to live comfortably especially in the yuletide.
She also noted the need for the cedi to be stable for importers to have good currency for imports to drive the economy particularly during the Christmas period.
