• Some GUTA members in Koforidua and Accra, locked up shops belonging to foreigners
• The Greater Accra Chairman of GUTA has called on government to speed up with solutions to end this trade war
Following the trade impasse between Ghanaian traders and foreign retail traders, the Greater Accra Chairman of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Nana Kwabena Peprah, has called on government to speed up the strategies put in place to end this problem.
It would be recalled that shops belonging to some foreigners in the retail business in the Eastern regional capital, Koforidua and in Accra were closed by members of GUTA.
This comes after negotiations by a joint implementation task force between GUTA and the Nigeria Union of Traders Association (NUTAG) to look out for a long-lasting solution to this trading impasse proved futile.
Nana Kwabena Peprah, in an interview with Citi News described the recent happenings as unfortunate.
He said, “All these happenings are unfortunate, but what I will say is that the leadership is in control. We are talking to the sector associations and asking that the government should speed up and immediately convene the meeting for the retail trade committee to work and bring sanity."
Despite the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which is to allow the free movement of goods among ECOWAS countries, there's still a trade war between Ghanaian traders and their Nigerian counterparts.
Per the Ghana trade law, a person who is not a citizen or an enterprise that 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.
Also, there's a minimum capital requirement of $1 million for foreigners engaging in some retail business here in Ghana.
The foreigners, on the other hand, have also raised concerns on the $1million capital cap placed on them and asked that the law be reviewed.
Some shops have been locked up by GUTA members