Some traders at the Madina Market in Accra say they’re yet to experience a full resumption of business activities following Monday’s disinfection exercise at the market by government in a bid to curtail the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The traders say although business has been quite slow, they’re hopeful things will pick up in the few days’ time.
The very busy Madina Market looked unusually quiet when Citi Business News visited. Only a few buyers were spotted around, as traders competed for their attention to make some sales for the day.
Some of them who spoke to Citi Business News about Monday’s about the fumigation exercise said, “Market is quite slow due to the disinfection exercise. People are not buying foodstuffs and it has to do more with the chemicals used in spraying the markets. They want to wait for some days before they come.”
Another trader added that “The market is recording low turnout due to the disinfection exercise that was carried out.”
The Local Government and Rural Development Minister took the decision to fumigate all major markets in the country starting from the Greater Accra Region, where 137 markets went through the process in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
So far, Ghana has recorded 132 cases of the COVID 19, with three deaths. While the traders welcomed the exercise, they say the situation has slowed down business.
Some traders had actually not returned to the market days after the exercise was carried out.
Interestingly, the few buyers who were seen at the market complained about high cost of foodstuffs. They attributed this to the COVID-19 situation.
Michael Opoku, a buyer who appeared quite surprised about the prices, called on authorities to do something about the situation.
“Things are very expensive here. Just imagine buying three fingers of plantain for 5cedis. I believe this is because of the situation with the virus” He said.