The Metropolitan Chief Officer for Accra, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, has urged traders to make cleanliness a daily responsibility rather than limiting it to designated sanitation exercises.
He said traders should consider cleaning their surroundings as part of their normal business activities, just as people washed their plates after eating.
“Just as you wash your plates after eating, you must also clean the place where you do your business,” he said.
He made the call at Rawlings Park in Accra on Saturday, October 3, 2026, when the AMA hosted the national flagship clean-up exercise to commemorate World Clean-up Day 2026.
The exercise brought together officials from the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, the AMA, traditional authorities, market women, youth groups, sanitation workers and other stakeholders.
Clean cities
The exercise was held on the global theme, “From Clean Plates to Clean Cities,” the country adopting the complementary national theme, “National Sanitation Day: Local Actions Yielding National Impact.”
Mr Allotey said the objective of the AMA was not to prevent people from trading but to ensure that they operated in clean and healthy environments. He said traders should be able to conduct their businesses, make profits and take their earnings home instead of spending their income on treating illnesses that could be prevented through improved sanitation.
The MCE said he had observed a positive change in the attitude of some traders, including instances where traders voluntarily swept their surroundings during normal business hours.
He urged them to sustain the practice and make cleanliness an integral part of their daily activities.
Waste managment
The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, announced plans by the government to provide households with separate waste bins, replace open-bucket waste tricycles and establish waste transfer stations across Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
He said the measures formed part of efforts to establish an effective and efficient waste management system beginning at the household level, in line with President John Dramani Mahama’s directive.
Mr Ayariga said all MMDAs have been given 30 days to identify and submit one-acre sites for the construction of waste transfer stations. He said the government was also developing an integrated waste management system to address challenges along the entire waste chain, from household collection and transfer stations to final disposal and recycling.
Traditional authotities
The Asafoatse Onukpa of the Ga State, Captain Nii Kojo Nseni Mankattah IV, who represented the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, urged residents and traders to take greater responsibility for maintaining clean environments after organised sanitation exercises.
He expressed concern that significant resources were often spent on sanitation exercises only for some of the cleaned areas to become littered again within hours.
He, therefore, urged residents to discourage indiscriminate dumping and challenge people who littered public spaces to pick up their waste and dispose of it properly.
