By William Sarpong

Investigation conducted by The Daily Democrat indicates that about fifty-five (55) foreign companies in Accra are seriously in Retail Trading meant only for the indigenous people in the country as stipulated by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 478 of 1994.

The GIPC Act 478 of 1994 states that foreigners are not supposed to involve themselves into Retail Trading, which is reserved for the indigenous people of the country. The Daily Democrat got to know that these foreigners retail goods such shoes, hardware/flowers, bags, plates, mats, plumbing materials, floor & wall tiles, plumbing & electrical, fishing nets and others.

The effects of the operations of the foreigners in the retail trade in the markets and wholesaling of finished products of all sorts, according to some local retailers, are damning, perverse and manifold.

The activities of these foreigners, as The Daily Democrat was told, are collapsing the businesses of local traders with its consequences of unemployment.

Again, it is bringing about Capital Flight which is hitting the economy so hard and bad by the day.

The Paper was also hinted that because the foreigners gain more from the retail trading, they are able to pay any goodwill of any increasing quantum of rent as compared to the indigenous.

In an interview with the Chairman of Kantamanto Hardware Dealers Association, Mr. Daniel Aggrey, he said they believe that the indifference shown by the past NPP Government and the activities of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre have revealed worrying accounts of a nation bent on rendering its own employed citizens unemployed, adding that the Government on the altar of diplomatic expediency, ignored all their calls and cries for the strict enforcement of GIPC Act 478 of 1994 whilst the GIPC plays the lead role in collapsing many small to medium scale indigenous enterprises by either licensing unqualified foreigners who fake as investors as well as encouraging those who flout the laws to ‘regularize ‘ their illegality.

According to him, they want the NDC Government to ensure the strict enforcement of GIPC Act of 1994 Act 478 Section 18.

They urged the government to also flush out all foreigners whose core business here in Ghana is only the importation of finished products, saying their expectations of foreign investments are in the manufacturing, tourism, agricultural and mining sectors and to some extent supermarkets.

They also want a probe to be instituted into the activities of the GIPC since the year 2000. Mr. Aggrey indicated that government should put a Task Force in place to flush out all foreigners who have flouted the Trade Laws.

He also recounted that they were surprised when six weeks within the NDC administration, precisely on the 18th of February, 2009, some personnel from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) closed down some Chinese owned shops but all were reopened the day after.

The Chairman however said they are of the hope that the NDC Government would not abandon them as the previous NPP administration did because of the assurance given by the President during his speech during the Independence Day Anniversary on 6th March, 2009 to deal drastically with anybody who flouts the laws of Ghana.