One of the tenants affected by the Trade Fair midnight demolition has voiced his utmost disappointment in the Board Chairman of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited (GTFC), Daniel McKorley, owner of McDan Group of Companies for his recent interview over the ‘illegal’ demolition of businesses sited at the Trade Fair site.
According to McKorley, the master plan of the supposed new Trade Fair will have Ghana pavilion where the businesses that got destroyed last Sunday including Raymond Archer's namely Universal Labels & Packaging Co. Ltd, as well as Colour Planet Ltd, can ask for a space and it will be given to them.
“…Raymond can walk in today and ask for space within the plan, he’ll be given a space…So I don’t understand why there should be a fight,” McKorley told Accra based Joy FM.
When asked what role Mr Archer played in the redevelopment of Trade Fair, the board chairman answered that Mr Raymond Archer and his Colour Planet Ltd can continue their printing works within the Ghana pavilion.
But Raymond Archer in an interview with GhanaWeb indicated that, prior to the demolition of his business at the Trade Fair, he pleaded with the management as well as the board chair to be given an opportunity within the redevelopment of the Trade Fair in order to site his business.
None of his pleas to either the management or board was considered.
“If there was an opportunity to be part of the redevelopment why on earth are we in court…one of the reliefs I am seeking is that I should be accommodated within the plan because all pleas hit a roadblock. Now that the factory has been destroyed, I can now be accommodated within the plan..... sad’, Raymond Archer added.
Archer whose factory employs about 120 workers noted that Mr McKorley promised to meet with the CEO of Trade Fair to consider his plea, but never did.
Analysis
It is really surprising the whole Trade Fair debacle and how it has been managed so far. A government who promised to build a factory in every district will then look on for a factory to be destroyed without taking into consideration how the owners/employees will survive?
In 2020, Ghana as a country still demolishes factories at midnight when the owners are asleep without giving them the chance to even take their extension board from their factory?
Will the owner of McDan shipping, a private businessman, be talking like the way he did on Joy FM if his businesses were among the ones destroyed?
This is a country where most private businesses, as well as SMEs, borrow from the banks with huge interests to establish something, so how will they pay back the bank loans?
How long will a president who promised to create jobs sit and watch people he has appointed destroy businesses without doing anything to save it?
What would have happened if the government had saved the businesses of Raymond Archer and others at the Trade Fair?
Daniel McKorley