Ghanaian traders at Opera Square in the Greater Accra have again locked up shops owned by foreigners in the national capital.
This is the third time in the year shops owned by foreigners have been closed by Ghanaian traders at the Opera Square. There was a recent one in July 2019.
The operation which does not have the support of the police is targeted at shops owned by Chinese nationals.
The Ghanaian traders used their specialized padlocks to lock-up the shops. More than 50 shops had been locke-up.
The traders moved from one shop to another demanding document to show that the shop owners were Ghanaians. If there was no documentation or they realized the owner was not a Ghanaian they locked the shop and moved to the next person.
This is coming at a time when the members of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) gave the government an ultimatum to close retail shops belonging to foreigners by today, Monday, November 4, 2019.
According to GUTA the government has not fulfilled its promise of removing all foreigners from the retail market despite numerous appeals.
GUTA has said that the foreign traders whose retail shops have been closed can sue them if they think they are being treated unfairly.
What the law says about foreign retail trade
Members of GUTA have always argued that they foreign retail traders are flouting the laws in the country.
According to them, the activities of the foreigners breach the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s Act (Act 865).
According to Section 27 (1) of the GIPC Act, a person who is not a citizen or an enterprise which is not wholly-owned by a citizen shall not invest or participate in the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place.
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