Late last month, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as part of his Greater Accra regional tour visited spare parts dealers in Abossey Okai.

During his visit which received a mammoth crowd, the President also interacted with the executives of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association.

According to the Co-chairman of the Association, Clement Boateng, the group outlined 4 major needs of spare parts dealers to President Akufo-Addo.

Below are the concerns tabled before Akufo-Addo.

Construction of Abossey Okai road

Inasmuch as works are ongoing on the Obetsebi Lamptey roundabout, the Association say it is at on a slow pace, hence, plead with government, through the Ministry of Roads and Highways to hasten the process to ease traffic.

According to Clement Boateng, “When the President came, there were concerns that were put before him and notable amongst them was our road construction which is ongoing. It is ongoing but it has however been on a snail pace so we appealed to the president to try as much as possible to talk to the Road Minister so that by if the end of the year if all the construction works would have been completed, we would have been very much happy”.

Land for modern car park

The issue of congestion at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra remains a challenge. Based on this, the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association have requested that government gives out a piece of land which would be used for a modern car park within the Abossey Okai enclave.

“Another concern that was put to the President was a piece of land that we want the President to allocate to us for us to form a partnership; public-private partnership to put up a modern car park. This place is very congested and it has a very negative impact on our roads. There is a land here across the road which used to be the offices of Urban roads but they are no more using the place…and it’s just some skeleton stuff over there…,” Mr Boateng added.

Access to cheap credit

Speaking on access to cheap credit, the co-chairman of the Association explained that this would help solve the unemployment issue the country is faced with as businessmen in Abossey Okai employs a minimum of 3 people.

“We also appealed for cheaper credit activity to expand our businesses so that we can be able to employ more people because currently, we have over 5,000 shops in Abossey Okai here and each and very shop employs an average people of 3 so 3 people times 5,000, we have over 15, 000 people here. Not to talk about our brothers and sisters who are selling on a table-top. If we are able to get cheap credit to expand our businesses, it will enable us to create jobs for more people”.

Creation of police post in Abossey Okai

Most times, people in Abossey Okai are fraught with thievery and other uncalled for attitudes which in turn tarnishes their image. It is for this reason that the Association wants government to establish a police post bring sanity in the area.

“We appealed to the President to see if he could create a police post within our enclave so that it will go a long way to check indiscipline,” the co-chairman of the Association said.