Ghana government enforces $1m fee on Nigerian traders

Ghana government has spoken up on what is termed the alleged maltreatment of Nigerian traders in the country.

This is following the noncompliance of the Nigerian traders in the country with Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) laws.

The president of Nigerian Traders Union in Ghana, Chukwuemeka Nnaji said that most of the members haven’t done the GIPC registration because it requires $1million cash or equity and they were given 14 days to regularise.

Prince Boakye Boateng, Head of Communications, Ministry of Trade, while speaking in an interview said,

“It cannot be that we’ve been insensitive. If that is what they’re saying, I’ll be  disappointed.

I’ll rather say they have been unfair to us as a regulatory body, because we have given them more time than enough to the extent even Ghanaians thought that the ministry was not even on their side or the ministry wasn’t ready to even enforce law

So, it’s very surprising to me for them to say that we’ve not given them enough time.

If you recall as far back as December last year, these shops were locked. The President intervened and we asked that the shops be re-opened.

They complied, the shops were opened. Since then we have given them an opportunity to regularise the document and submit it to us for verification, that has not been done.

The very law that gives GUTA the right to be the sole traders in our market, that same law requires that a certain group of people are those who can go and do law enforcement and not you. So allow us to do our work.”