Confusion in Ashaiman as Assembly blocks major road for hawkers to trade

There is confusion brewing at the Ashaiman main market as the Municipal Assembly has blocked a major road in front of the main market to allow hawkers to trade.

The road which connects the central business area to the northern part of Ashaiman which links to Kpone Katamanso and Adenta Madina has been taken over by these hawkers.

As a result, market women who own sheds within the market are against the directive, saying they will not pay the usual tax until the hawkers are driven off the street.

“We have been in the market for 50 years and we have never heard of something like this. I called the chief executive who informed me that it was an order from above,” one woman complained.

Speaking on Eyewitness News later on, the Municipal Chief Executive for Ashaiman, Albert Boakye Okyere, however, said the move followed “a directive given by the Local Government Ministry on consultation with most of the chief executives across the country.”

“We were directed to create places for these hawkers so we can regulate their activity and indeed, Ashaiman being a very brisk commercial zone, there was a need to create an area for them so we could get them out of our principal streets and that is what we have done.”

He added that the move “was a big respite to the numerous hawkers who are in Ashaiman.”