Commercial activities at the newly built Kejetia Market have come to a standstill as traders have been plunged into darkness and intense heat. This was after the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Wednesday, October 13 cut power supply to the facility following accumulated debts.
A check by Akoma FM at the facility revealed that the traders have not been paying electricity bills for over five months, a situation that has forced ECG officials to cut the power and withdraw services to the traders.
The situation at the market, which houses over 800,000 traders within the central business district, has been dire and unbearable.
General Secretary for the Traders Reuben Amey describes the abrupt power cut as unfortunate.
“At about 11:30 Wednesday morning, we just realized our lights are out only to realize that the ECG officials have cut the power because we owe them.”
The traders have already been complaining about exorbitant electricity bills they are faced with.
They also lamented over 7,000 lockable shops at the facility are connected to only one meter.
The single-face meter, since the commissioning of the market, has met intense opposition from traders.
Investigations at the market reveal the last time management brought up the matter of electricity bill was in April and the debt hovered around GH¢435,000.
Since then, management is yet to bring the matter up.
Though the traders are going through intense heat amidst darkness due to the power cut, they believe this development is a sign to vindicate traders’ reasons for separate meters for each lockable shop.
Chairman for Federation of Kumasi Traders Nana Prempeh further explained that “this is just the beginning of what we the leaders have been advocating. We have been sounding warning that there’s no sense in connecting 7,203 shops to one meter hence the distribution of the bill will be a problem. Now see what we are facing!”
Although management of the market is yet to respond and address the situation at the time this report was filed, traders and patrons at the market are agitated.
Source: myghanadaily
