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Between 2011 and 2012, the Kumasi Central Market witnessed five fire outbreaks which left in their trail extensive damage to property and loss of goods and cash running into several thousands of cedis.

And on each occasion that the fire gutted the market, officials of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) were quick to promise a reconstruction of the market. After last Sunday’s devastating fire, during which about 50 stores were destroyed, the KMA again gave the indication that plans were far advanced to re-develop the market into a modern facility.

Often associated with such promises to reconstruct the market is the setting up of committees to investigate the cause of the fire outbreaks. We wonder which finding or recommendation of the previous investigative committees has ever been made public or implemented to forestall a recurrence of those outbreaks.

The Daily Graphic acknowledges the bureaucratic nature of the Civil Service, which oftentimes slows down government business. In fact, private firms or businesses that have had to deal with the Civil Service always complain about the slow nature of business.

However, in matters which affect the livelihoods of thousands of Ghanaians, we expect the authorities to deal with the issues head on.

We do not think that it is appropriate for the authorities to use moments of pain to make sweet promises without taking concrete action to solve the problem, because from 2011 to now is far too long for the authorities to be finalising plans for the take-off of the project.

Even as we wait for the reconstruction of the market, we ask if the KMA authorities have taken any steps, after any of those fire disasters, to inspect the market to check the state of electrical wiring or the gadgets that the traders use.

If this is done, defective switches can be identified and replaced and where there appears to be a system overload, it can be addressed.

The Daily Graphic believes that if these simple operational measures had been taken, some of the fire outbreaks could have been averted. But we often play the ostrich until things get out of our hands before we contemplate action.

As we sympathise with the traders who lost their goods and money, we urge them to consider taking insurance policies to ameliorate the pain in such disastrous moments.

We also urge our financial institutions to help the traders by signing them onto a scheme whereby their daily sales could be collected and kept safe at the banks. As it is now, some of the traders lose huge sums of money not only from the destroyed wares but also the loss of physical cash piled up in the stores.

We believe that if the banks or financial institutions are ingenious, they will help not only the traders but also the banking system in retrieving all the huge sums of money out there in people’s hands.

As it is, there are many more people out there who do keep money in their homes and offices because of the failure of the banks to reach out to them in appropriate forms.

The Daily Graphic, once again, reminds the KMA that it will be monitoring the next line of action the assembly will take to stop the Kumasi Central Market fires.

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