Two Gomoa markets abandoned
After six and 10 years of construction, the Gomoa Ankamu and Kyirenkwanta markets respectively in the Central Region have been abandoned.
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While the Ankamu market has become a breeding ground for various weeds, tall grasses and reptiles like lizards and snakes, the one at Kyirenkwanta has become a playing ground for both adults and children.
The Ankamu market has five sheds, a Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) office, two school blocks, a Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP), two separate rooms for the market women, five containers and a kiosk.
Almost all the sheds in the Ankamu market, for instance, have been overtaken by weeds.
Assembly
In an interview, the Gomoa West District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, said drivers were responsible for the inability of the market to operate.
He explained that a special office and lorry station had been provided at the market for the GPRTU, but the drivers had refused to make use of the facility.
According to him, the assembly did what it could to ensure that the market women would make use of both markets but the drivers refused to go to the markets for reasons best known to them. That, he believed, was the major reason for the market women’s refusal to make use of the market, adding that because the markets were a distance away from the town, the traders had to be conveyed by the drivers to and fro every day.
Even though Mr Aidoo-Mensah admitted that the Ankamu market was not well furnished at the time, he indicated that the assembly assured the market women that the facilities would be improved as soon as they started their operations there but they ignored that assurance.
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DCE disappointed
Mr Aidoo-Mensah expressed his frustration and disappointment with the attitude of the market women and drivers.
“Which DCE would be happy with that after the government has poured so much into the construction of such markets?” he asked.
When asked about the measures the assembly put in place before constructing both markets, the DCE stated that the land was given to the assembly by the traditional authorities.
As a result, the assembly could not be blamed for the location of the market.
“The women in the town requested for a market, and land was donated by the traditional authorities so the assembly built the markets on that,” he added.
PPP arrangement with assembly
Mr Aidoo-Mensah said the assembly would ensure that the resources expended by the government was not wasted, assuring the residents that the assembly had invited a private investor to formulate the necessary plans to make the market more attractive for residents and those living outside the town.
The DCE indicated that “we have realised that if we want to depend on only the people of Ankamu and its environs, the markets would not function.”
GPRTU officials
The Chairman of the Ankamu-Apam Junction GPRTU station, Mr P.K. Donkoh, admitted that the drivers refused to go to the new market because the market was far away from the town, and added that the market women were only a few, which made the drivers to run at a loss.