AMA Mayor Interacts With Petty Traders

Accra, March 19, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) is negotiating with the Judiciary to establish special courts to prosecute those who break AMA's byelaws.

Under the arrangement a percentage of the fines collected from offenders would be given to the arresting officer, the courts and AMA.

Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, Mayor of Accra, who was interacting with petty traders in Accra on Friday, said this development was to curb the indiscriminate littering of streets and hawking at unapproved areas.

He said the AMA would also introduce into the Ghanaian market, street-hawking system, used in some parts of the world, to bring order onto the streets.

The system he said makes it possible for petty traders, who did not own shops to market their wares on specific days of the week to decongest the city of "human traffic".

The Mayor noted that, even though, AMA wanted to bring sanity onto the streets, it would go about it in a civil manner so that the traders, most of them breadwinners, could still sustain their families.

On revenue collection, the Mayor tasked the collectors to try to achieve their annual revenue targets of 300 per cent, adding that traders should insist on the original revenue tickets. Madam Esther Boakyewaa, Vice Chairperson of the United Petty Traders Association, urged his colleagues to keep their surroundings clean and asked AMA to educate traders on the bye-laws. The traders pledged their support to help AMA rid the city of filth and bring sanity onto the streets. 19 Mar. 04