Traders to take insurance cover on wares — Mrs Kpodo
Traders at the Makola market in Accra have been given up to September this year to compulsorily cover their wares with insurance.
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The move is expected to help them to protect their wares against any eventuality in the face of the high incidence of fire outbreaks in the country’s markets.
The Chief Executive Officer of the market, Mrs Rose-Margeret Kpodo, said this at the maiden Graphic CEOs and Stakeholders Breakfast Forum in Accra. It is on record that majority of the traders at the country’s markets are insurance averse because they find it as a waste of resources, a perception Mrs Kpodo confirmed in her comments at the forum.“The traders also ask why they would not be given any monies after they have contributed for many years without an incident”, she said.
However, she said the market authority had asked them to discard that notion to ensure that they fully complied with the directive.
She recounted the heavy losses market traders suffered during the incidents which have thrown some of them into a state of despair.
Mrs Kpodo said the losses suffered by the traders were heavy and asked that “from the nature and the frequency of the fire out breaks this should be treated as a serious national security issue to prevent a recurrence”.
According to her, it beats the imagination of the authorities at Makola how the fire out breaks hit the market in spite of the safety measures adopted by the market to prevent such incidents.
The government has also not ruled out arson because of the frequency of the fires that hit major markets around the country within a short spate of time.
She said there was the need for the city authorities to ensure that the markets are safer to prevent a recurrence.
The Managing Director of Vanguard Assurance, Mr Gideon Amenyedor, said “All efforts must be made to sensitise traders to the need to insure their businesses against disasters such as fires”.
According to him, in times of ordeal and pain, they would have something to fall back on to mitigate their plight.
He also used the occasion to disabuse the minds of the traders that they would be asked to pay huge sums per annum on their properties when they insure their wares.
By Charles Benoni Okine/Graphic Business/Ghana
