The enforcement team of the Ghana Standards Authority, GSA, has closed down several shops at the Accra Central Market including shops that deal in prints and fabrics.
The standardization exercise sought to uncover the illegal production of sub-standard or counterfeit products in Ghana, and also ensure that vendors only sell authentic goods to customers.
The GSA, while performing the exercise, took samples of some products to ascertain their authenticity, and locked up some shops in cases where it was realized that the vendors sell a lot of substandard fabrics.
The GSA said the exercise is to rid the markets of substandard goods.
Business Development Manager at the GSA, George Kojo Anti, told Citi Business News the fabrics are hazardous to the skin and as such must not be allowed unto the markets.
“The exercise was to go to the markets, sample products and the suspicious fabrics that are actually dominant in the shops. In the interest of public health and safety, in the interest of consumer protection, then we would temporarily have to suspend the sale of such because they are articles that we suspect hold a danger for life. There is no reason why we should allow at a point where we have seen it with our own eyes to be continued to be sold in public. One human life lost can never be regained” he explained.
The traders were however unhappy with the exercise, and vehemently resisted the closure of their shops.
They argue that the authorities must rather deal with those who bring in the goods through the various borders and not the traders.
“We have sent this issue to court several times, and I championed it. We went back and forth on it for two years, then they finally granted us our papers to come back to the market. So why this attack now at this time?” one vendor lamented.