Ghanaian government has faulted the alleged maltreatment of Nigerian traders in the country, saying that they were given enough time to comply with GIPC laws.
Disclosing this on Sunday, Head of Communications, Ministry of Trade Prince Boakye Boateng, who spoke with Starr News said: “it cannot be we’ve been insensitive If that is what they’re saying, I’ll be disappointed because I’ll rather say they have rather been unfair to us as a regulatory body because we have given them more time than enough to the extent even the Ghanaians thought that the ministry was not even on their side or the ministry wasn’t ready to even enforce law.”
“So, it’s very surprising to me for them to say that we’ve not given them enough time. If you recall as far back as December last year, these shops were locked, the president intervened and we asked that the shops be re-opened because the very law that gives GUTA the right to be the sole traders in our market, that same law requires that a certain group of people are those who can go and do law enforcement and not you, so allow us to do our work.
“They complied, the shops were opened. Since then we have given them an opportunity to regularize the document and submit it to us for verification that has not been done.”
“Now, this exercise started from Abossey-Okai on Monday. Because we have never been to Abossey-Okai for this exercise, when we went there we did not just start locking shops. We went there, we inspected the shops and we gave them notices that in 14-days they should ensure that all their necessary documentations be complete.
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“These people at circle have been served notices for over a year now.”
Recall that Mr Chukwuemeka Nnaji, President of Nigerian Traders Union in Ghana, had Saturday, accused Ghanaian government of maltreating Nigerian traders in the country.
According to him: “Most of our members do not have the GIPC registration, because it requires one million dollars cash or equity and they gave us 14 days within which to regularise.
“As of Thursday, they had moved to another area and started locking up shops of Nigerian traders.
“Nigerian life in Ghana matters. This is the livelihood of Nigerians being destroyed by Ghanaian Authorities.
“This is not being perpetrated by a trade union, but Ghanaian authorities. “They demanded that we must employ a minimum of 25 skilled Ghanaian workers and must not trade in commodities that Ghanaian traders have applied to trade in.
“The humiliation of Nigerians is getting out of hand. We are calling on the Nigerian government to come to our aid. “We have legally registered our businesses and we pay taxes”.
But in riposte on Sunday, Boateng quashed the allegation, noting that they were given time to comply.
Vanguard
Source: allafrica.com
