Kumasi City Market: Shops Locked to Facilitate Service Charge Collection

The Managing Director of Kumasi City Market, Mr Kofi Duffour, has revealed that traders at the market often exhibit reluctance when it comes to paying the service charge. As a result, the market management has resorted to locking shops as a means of ensuring payment.

“We lock over 400 shops every day to collect the service charge. Due to limited manpower, we are unable to lock more shops,” Mr Duffour explained.

In an interview with Agudey on Nkwantannanso on June 13, he further noted that while they used to collect approximately GHC 5,000 worth of service charge in the past, the figure increased to GHC 80,000 and currently stands at over GHC 200,000 on a daily basis.

As the Managing Director, one of his responsibilities is to oversee the collection of both premium fees and service charges.

 However, he highlighted challenges encountered in collecting the premiums, which were supposed to be paid prior to traders being allocated shops.

“When I assumed office, it was difficult to collect premiums because the traders refused to pay. Initially, they were required to pay before entering the market, but they appealed to the government and were allowed to pay 20% with the promise to settle the remainder after 10 months,” he explained.

However, once the traders gained access to the market, they deviated from the agreed-upon terms and refused to fulfil their payment obligations. 

The old Kejetia traders claimed they were not adequately compensated when asked to relocate from the original market, while traders from the Central Market expressed their unwillingness to pay, citing their intention to return to their original market.

The first phase of the Kumasi City Market was initiated by the John Dramani Mahama government in 2015 and completed by the Akuffo Addo government in 2018. It was estimated to cost US$259,425,000.