Correspondence from Western Region

Traders at the Sekondi market are bitterly lamenting over the dilapidated state of the market, causing huge financial losses to their businesses as it drives trading activities to Takoradi and other satellite markets.

The over 100-year-old Sekondi Market has seen very little renovation since it was constructed in the late 1920s, when the market was relocated from Sekondi European Town to its current location at Asafo Bongoasie.

The most pressing need of the traders at the Sekondi market is the re-roofing of the market.

At the time of the visit to the market, our Western Regional Correspondent observed that sections of the market sheds had been ripped off, exposing the women in the market to the scorching sun and the rain.

The situation, according to the traders, is rendering their business activities inside the market fruitless, and the hope of getting the problem fixed dwindles by the day since all the pleas to the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) to come to their aid have fallen on deaf ears.

The situation we (GhanaWeb) are told has remained like that for some years now but the traders, on their own accord, have been making contributions to rehabilitate sections close to their stores, all to no avail and are now facing the impact since the rains set in.

“I have lost more than seven pieces of cloth belonging to my customers which was given to me to sow for them, but as usual, we closed the shop one day and went home. That night it rained heavily, and when we returned to the market the following day, my shop flooded, destroying so many things in the shop. Why should that happen,” a seamstress in the market lamented.

As if that were not enough, all the ECG meters in the market are equally exposed to the rain, and for that matter, it is not safe to stay in the shop anytime it rains.

“I have not been able to work in the shop for three weeks now since it started raining, look at how my shop has flooded, and I cannot use the equipment I work with as a hairdresser because the electrical wires are in the rain,” she added.

The traders are therefore appealing to the government to come to their aid as a matter of urgency.

Meanwhile, an attempt by the NDC’s Parliamentary Candidate for Sekondi Constituency, Lawyer Blay Armah, to fix the dilapidated roofing of the market has been strongly contested by the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, arguing that plans are far advanced for the reconstruction of the Sekondi market, so allowing Lawyer Blay Armah to fix the situation would be a no for the assembly.

Corroborating this information, Lawyer Blay Armah told our correspondent that he consulted the Coordinating Director of the Assembly and informed him of his intention to fix the dilapidated roofing of the market for the traders, but he was not permitted to do so.

Adding the decision was born out of a passionate appeal the market women made to him.

“I have seen how the traders are suffering, and the rainy season has worsened the situation. Most of the traders can’t sell whenever it rains, so I went to see the situation and decided to fix the roofing for them. The administrator in the market asked me to speak to the Sekondi sub-metro director, but I rather followed it up with the Coordinating Director since the buck stops with him and then the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), but the Director told me nicely that I should forget it.”

According to him, the Coordinating Director was emphatic that the assembly has plans to fix the market in the future.

“He said they have sent estimates of the market to the Finance Ministry and that they have plans of redeveloping the market to a modern status, so even if they allow me to fix it, my investment will go to waste. But it is my money, and even if I fix it today and it is taken off tomorrow, I won’t be bothered. The traders are suffering, and the plan they are talking about did not start today. They have been promising to fix it over the years, but nothing has happened there and the traders are suffering. A temporal solution is needed for now,” he added.

The Public Relations Officer of STMA, John Last, also indicated that allowing any investment into the market would later go to waste since the assembly has earmarked the market for demolition and reconstruction right after the famous Takoradi market redevelopment.

“We have a programme dubbed the Sekondi-Takoradi Integrated Market Development, and we have already submitted the concept note and all proposals to the Finance Ministry through the Ministry of Local Government [Decentralization and Rural Development]. So, we already have a program for the market, it has been planned for demolition. The Coordinating Director told them the assembly will not encourage any investment that will later go to waste,” he indicated.

That notwithstanding, Lawyer Blay Armah believes he is being prevented from finding temporary solutions for the market women due to political reasons but until the assembly compromised on their stands and finds a temporary solution to the plight of the traders in the Sekondi market the problem lingers on.

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