Crack the Whip – GUTA tells Gov’t

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has tasked the government to implement the deadline for foreign retailers to move out of markets.

According to the group, the laws should be enforced as expected by the Ghanaian trading community.

The president of the Association, Mr Joseph Obeng at a news conference in Accra yesterday stated that the association needed the government and all relevant authorities to get to work once the deadline elapses.

“Any Non-Ghanaian not certified under the GIPC law, found to be operating a retail trade, is deliberately doing so in blatant disobedience and total disregard for the Ghanaian people and must be followed by the strict enforcement of the law with appropriate punitive sanction”, Mr Obeng said.

The President of the Association urged the authorities including the National Security that after the deadline the laws should be enforced as expected by the Ghanaian trading community.

GUTA lauded the government for finally stepping in to move the Non-Ghanaian retailers out of the Ghanaian markets but said that the solution would be to completely wipe out the foreign retailers from the markets.

On the issue of some Non- Ghanaian traders possessing some form of National Identification,  Mr Obeng asked for the general public to aid the National Identification Authority to expose Non- Ghanaians.

The Association pledged its support to the National Identification Authority in the on-going exercise that will in turn prevent the Non-Ghanaian retailers from obtaining identification.

Background

This development follows the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s call for the foreign retailers to move out of the markets before the 27^th of July, 2018.

The directive was in accordance with the GIPC Law the GIPC Law 2013, (Act 865) section 27(1) which states that a person who is not a citizen or an enterprise which is not wholly owned by a citizen shall not invest or participate in 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.

The government made this call after several calls by GUTA and other Ghanaians to move the foreign retailers out to allow Ghanaians increase their sales and prevent the influx of fake goods on the market.

By: Brenda Osei Karikari