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Minister interacts with market fire victims

Nana Oye Lithur (middle), Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, touring the market with Mr Okyere Atta-Baffour (left), Chairman of the Shoe Sellers Assoiation at Kantamanto, and Mr Obour (right), Chairman of the Second-hand Cloth Dealers Association, also at Kantamanto. Picture: EDNA ADUSERWAAThe outbreak of fire in some market centres in the country early this year left a number of traders in despair, as they lost their capital and their wares in the fire outbreak.

The issue engaged the critical attention of the government, and President John Dramani Mahama instructed the Ministry of Finance to earmark GH¢5,000,000 as emergency fund to support the affected traders.

Consequently, an 11-member technical committee, chaired by the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, was instituted and tasked to compile a list of affected traders in the two regions, identify and screen potential beneficiaries, register affected victims and organise the list of victims into categories to facilitate the disbursement of the grant.

The committee was also to determine the amount of money to be given to each beneficiary, based on the extent of damage or loss of merchandise; determine the mode of payment for potential beneficiaries, as well as supervise the disbursement of the fund to them, while GH¢3,000,000 out of the total amount of GH¢5,000,000 was to be used for the reconstruction activities in the market centres.

 

Minister’s visit

Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, on Monday visited the Agbogbloshie and Kantamanto markets in Accra to interact with the traders who were affected by recent fire disasters in the markets. The visit enabled her to see how they were putting the grant they received from the government to use.

A total of 6,800 fire victims of the market fire disaster, out of 7,381 traders in Accra and Kumasi, have had their bank details verified  and confirmed. The 781 who have discrepancies in their names and account numbers have not yet been verified and confirmed.

These discrepancies include wrong house addresses and incorrect bank account numbers.

Additionally, some used names of property owners for the registration, which did not correspond with their personal bank details.

“It must be stated that the Ministry, Stanbic Bank and the market leaders now have to go through these details before they effect payment,” Nana Oye Lithur said.

She added that a total of 3,451 traders in both Accra and Kumasi had had their account details in the traditional banks verified and credited  and that about 700 traders who had not been successfully verified were yet to have their accounts credited because they operated Savings and Loans Schemes which were not on the Bank of Ghana Inter-Bank Settlement System and as such, “they could not be paid electronically.”

“A cheque with payment voucher details has therefore been issued and should reflect in their accounts by close of the week,” she added.

Additionally, she said 380 beneficiaries who saved with various rural banks would be paid through Apex Bank.

She, however, stressed the ministry’s commitment to collaborate with other sectors of the economy, as well as stakeholders, beyond the disbursement to implement the recommendations on the market structure thereafter.

 

The Issue of Insurance

Nana Oye Lithur said about 98.7 per cent of traders have no insurance or investment policies while 1.2 per cent has some personal and other form of insurance, insurance cover for fire and natural disasters was zero.

Additionally, she said 34.4 per cent of the traders operated without bank accounts. However, 5.8 per cent had current accounts while 59.8 per cent operated some form of micro finance “savings,” which had limited benefits.

She, therefore, encouraged them to pay critical attention to their financial needs and take the issue of investment seriously for their own benefit.

 

The Management of Markets

It was revealed that about 80 per cent of the traders had varied issues about the management of the market by the assemblies, with respect to security, protection, and benefits of taxes or tolls paid.

Nana Oye Lithur, therefore, recommended that the ministry, in collaboration with the metropolitan assemblies in Accra and Kumasi, would liaise with the insurance, micro finance institutions and banks to design products to meet the needs of traders and should be replicated across the country.

Speaking on behalf of the traders of the Kantamanto Market in Accra, the Chairman of the Kantamanto Traders Association, Mr Samuel Amoah, thanked the ministry  and, for that matter, the government for their intervention and support for the traders.

By Zainabu Issah/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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