President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng
President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has kicked against plans by government permitting Nigerian retailers to facilitate trade in Ghana.
This comes on the back of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, announcing before Nigeria’s House of Representatives a review of the GIPC Act 2013, Act 865 that bars foreigners from partaking in retail trade.
“…of particular mention is the reconsideration of the US$1 million minimum requirement for trading enterprises under section 28(2) of the Act. This is to facilitate regularization of the businesses of affected Nigerian retail traders in the trade impasse.”
“Equally commendable is the special concession to be applied to a requirement for a payment of 0.5 stamp duty. Our Parliament is working to make sure this does not apply to our brothers and sisters from Nigeria,” Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin announced.
Reacting to the development, GUTA president Dr Joseph Obeng described the decision by the Speaker of Parliament “as a slap in the face” for the retail trading community in Ghana.
He believes the move will further worsen the plight of Ghanaian retailers who are already struggling to make ends meet in the retail trade sector.
“The joint communique has not even surfaced. We all factored in our inputs. It is something unknown to stakeholders. What was the Speaker talking about? Was it to please the people of Nigeria as against the people of Ghana?”
“The trading community in Ghana wants this law, and it should be made clear. Traders in Ghana might seem to be gentle, but we must be careful because they are very passionate about this law. This law pulled the brakes on Nigerian retailers overtaking our markets. These exemptions will do us more harm than any good,” Dr Obeng said in an interview.
Meanwhile, a joint communique issued between Ghana and Nigeria, following the Extraordinary ECOWAS Summit has indicated that Nigerian retailers will now be exempted from paying a US$1 million capital requirement under the Act to facilitate trade.
Prior to that, the Ghana Union of Traders Association back in December 2019, locked up over six hundred shops belonging to Nigerian retailers at Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
A similar move was replicated at Kumasi in the Ashanti region as most of the shops belonging to Nigerian traders were also forced to shut down that year after Ghanaian traders alleged that Nigerian traders had taken over the retail business in the country.
The decision caused a clash between Ghanaian traders and Nigerian traders leading to the arrest of some persons involved while others were badly injured.