General News of Monday, 23 March 2020

Source: happyghana.com

Government will pay Zoomlion for disinfecting markets - Naa Torshie Addo

Markets in Accra were disinfected today Markets in Accra were disinfected today

Some markets in the Greater Accra Region earlier today were closed down to make way for a disinfection exercise being undertaken by the Ministry of Local Government per the directive of the President.

The exercise was deemed necessary after Ghana confirmed over a dozen cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The exercise which was supported by the Zoomlion and other sanitation agencies.
Some Ghanaians have asserted that the disinfection exercise which was supported by the Zoomlion forms part of the company’s corporate social responsibility amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

But that assertion has been refuted by a Common Fund administrator of the Ministry of local government, Irene Naa Torshie Addo. According to her the spraying was not done for free but was a business opportunity Zoomlion Ghana seized.

When asked by Nana Afrifa Mensah, host of Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben if the Zoomlion’s participation in the exercise was to support the government freely, Naa Torshie responded in the negative. “Of course they will charge us. They will charge us a huge sum of money,” she stated.

The Ministry of local government and its associated assemblies deployed about 1,300 sprayers to disinfect about 137 markets in the Greater Accra region in a bid to combat the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). This exercise was in response to the president’s directive during his third address to the nation after COVID-19 reached Ghana.

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