[ 2016-10-26 ]

We are unhappy with market conditions – Market Women
The first Women Conference in Ghana under the
theme ‘Empowering Market Women for Economic
Prosperity’ came to a close yesterday at the
forecourt of the State House.

The traders used the platform as an opportunity to
state their grievances on the poor conditions and
standard of the markets they sell their food
stuff.


Although they were impressed with the initiative
aimed at empowering them socially and economically
through various training programmes, some of them
are suffering because their markets are not
equipped with basic amenities and the location of
the marketplaces do not favour them.

“Many market women are suffering because they do
not have stalls to store their food stuff. They
are left with no option than to leave them in the
open so when it rains heavily, some food items are
destroyed causing loss of money,” one trader
told GhanaWeb.

Another from Aflao in the Volta Region added “we
have to carry our food stuff with the help of a
truck to the market and go through the same
process back home because there are not enough
stalls to keep our goods. It gets exhausting so we
are pleading with the government to come to our
aid.”


Even though the Ministry of Gender and Social
Protection, Honourable Nana Oye Lithur emphasized
that market women play a key role in the
development of the country, the traders maintained
that the government should consult them or find
out the situation, as shareholders, before
constructing or developing the market where they
sell their products.


“The conference is good but our worry is that
market women are not consulted on which part of an
area a market should be constructed. Some of us
end up selling by the roadside which is
inappropriate so the best is to discuss with our
leaders before carrying on with a project.”


Market women from different markets in the ten
regions of the country came in their numbers to
grace the conference hosted by the First Lady, Mrs
Lordina Mahama, who promised to engage market
women and the local government at the economic
level.

Source - Ghanaweb

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